Lyubertsy (aka “Lyuber”, “Lyuber”) are the names of an aggressively-minded group of young people who operated in the city of Lyubertsy near Moscow in the mid-80s. Having formed in this small city, this subculture quickly spread to neighboring cities and towns of the Moscow region.
From the history of movement
It all started back in 1983-1984, when in Moscow and the region small gangs of Kazan punks began to appear - “winders”. They "toured" in this region, being engaged in petty robbery, theft, and organized riots. Perhaps it was these visiting gangs that inspired Lyubertsy teenagers.
How did the movement of lovers develop?
Young people in Lyubertsy from the end of the 70s was fond of weightlifting. Perhaps this was facilitated by the Olympic Games planned in the USSR. Naturally, in the wake of increased interest in sports in the country, adolescents, with the help of various children's sports organizations, easily got premises for their own gyms.
According to the memoirs of contemporaries, the first self-equipped "rocking chairs" appeared in Lyubertsy in the mid 70s.
Naturally, all participants in such "underground sports clubs" completely abandoned alcohol, tobacco and drugs. This was done in order to "swing" as soon as possible and as efficiently as possible.
District to district
The received force was necessary to apply somewhere. At the end of the 70s, the lovers fought at discos, organized large-scale battles "district to district". Such fights by the beginning of the 80s were not a rare occurrence in the entire USSR. Then the lovers began to travel to neighboring cities, then they reached Moscow.
The ideology of the lovers of the mid 80s
By that time, the Luber had fought not with equal sports hooligans from other cities and regions, but with metallers, punks, hippies, national minorities, and football fans. In other words, with everyone who looked and behaved incorrectly, i.e. "came under the influence of Western ideology."
By that time, the Luber called themselves cleaners of the motherland and patriots. At the same time, they did not forget, decently beating the “traitor of the Motherland”, to grab something of his values (rock paraphernalia, good shoes, jackets, hats, etc.). The lovers gathered in groups and waited for fans of heavy music at the exit from concerts to arrange a large-scale showdown.
Appearance of lovers
In the late 70s, Lyuber could be recognized by sweatpants and T-shirts, suspenders. From shoes, they preferred sneakers or ordinary slippers. By the 80s, almost every luber had cage pants and famous caps with small visors.
A distinctive element in the appearance of the lovers was the Komsomol badges depicting Lenin. A huge number of restless punks from all over the country, thanks to the newspapers, learned about the movement of lovers. At some point, the luber became fashionable. Their lovers appeared in the Baltic states, Belarus, Siberia, Ukraine.
