Matei told Bored Panda that 'Squatting Slavs in Tracksuits' is the first and largest Slavic humor page on Facebook. He started it all the way back in May 2015. He told us that he comes from a Slavic country and couldn't find anything similar on the internet at the time, so he decided to create the first page of its kind.
One year later, he decided to branch out and started a whopping three more Facebook pages: 'Scenic Depiction of Slavic Life,' 'Babushka,' and 'Lada Life.' The 'Lada Life' account, for example, is the largest Lada car page on Facebook, and according to the founder is "even bigger than the official page." And it's true!
However, Matei didn't confine himself just to Facebook. He also created two Instagram accounts, @squattingslavs and @scenic_depictions. All of them have grown organically, through viral content. That and the fact that the memes help "gather people from all over the world" is something that Matei is very proud of.
Just two weeks ago, Matei also opened an online store, the 'Squatting Slavs Store.' "I am the only person who has been and is involved in the entire network, including the store. I have been doing this every day for the past eight years without a break," he told Bored Panda.
"The majority of people who appreciate Slavic memes are from Slavic countries, and they can relate to all the memes I post. The other part of my fans is not from Slavic countries, but they find it to be an interesting trend and lifestyle," Matei said, adding that he personally enjoys memes that "depict the pleasant reality of this culture, the fact that we can solve anything even without money."
According to Matei, this mastery of DIY is where the 'Slavic Science' section comes from. "Even if something breaks, we can fix it with whatever we have at home," he said.
"Other memes depict the fact that even if some of us start making money and drive more expensive cars, we still eat 'burek' and 'cevapi' and other traditional Slavic dishes. I like most of the Slavic memes because we are naturally funny and make jokes about everything that happens to us," he told Bored Panda.
The ‘Scenic Depictions of Slavic Life’ Facebook page is very widely known. At the time of writing it had over 547k likes and more than 567k followers. The curators invite people to “dance in the rain, squat in the rain, live Slavic,” referring to the extremely well-known Squatting Slav meme.
The account “is a satellite of the” 'Squatting Slavs in Tracksuits' network. The original SSIT page has a whopping 1.3 million followers on Facebook.
The Squatting Slav meme has been a hallmark of internet culture for over a decade. Know Your Meme notes that the question as to why many Eastern European people stereotypically squat while wearing tracksuits first started appearing in the spotlight in late 2012, with the rise of the r/slavs_squatting subreddit and discussions on the notorious 4chan website. The meme only gained more popularity from then on.
The Squatting Slav meme’s roots lie in Gopnik culture. One meme, featured on Know Your Meme, describes a Gopnik (the plural being ‘Gopniki’) as “Russian white trash, commonly found on the outskirts of Moscow and in towns throughout.” They stereotypically wear tracksuits and many wear hoods or hats.
It is a pejorative term used in Russia and elsewhere “to refer to aggressive young men of lower-class suburbs coming from families of poor education and income.” Gopniks are quite similar to British Chavs. Urban Dictionary adds that Gopniks drink outdoors and can engage in petty crime. And the only difference between them and Chavs may be that the former speak Russian.
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, Slavs mainly live in eastern and southeastern Europe. However, they also extend across northern Asia, all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Slavs are subdivided into three main groups: East Slavs, West Slavs, and South Slavs. Meanwhile, Slavs can also be subdivided into two main groups based on religion: the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.
