Deciphering Russian Graffiti All Around the City

There is plenty of street art scattered all around the city. Some are really apparent and easy to find. Usually, these ones are the least impressive. It only makes sense that the easy to find ones are done as quickly as possible since they are out in the open.

However, it does not mean that these art pieces are the most "friendly". There is always a chance that at least one of the pieces will be bold and potentially upsetting.

I was walking down one of the busiest streets in the city and found something that disturbed me. A street art in the form of a "shadow". The reason I call it a shadow is that at the distance I was standing, I could have cast a shadow on the wall of the same height. Kinda eerie.

This piece gets even eerier when you realize it has a ghostly face. Eyes and mouth made with bright blue paint that was deliberately left a little longer to make the paint run down the face. Very creative use of paint to make a scary face as fast as possible.

The worst part, of course, is the hand that is placed very carefully over the groin area. And it would take you a minute, but the ghost shadow is taking a piss. See the yellow streak?

Most of the written graffiti is done in Russian. Kharkiv is a city in Ukraine that shares a border with Russia. The language of choice here is also Russian. So it makes sense that the graffiti would be in Russian, too.

It makes for a fun challenge. I try to, first of all, enjoy the craftsmanship. Then I try and decipher what is written. It is a challenge for me since Russian is not my first language and any Russian written in cursive or graffiti is like a puzzle to me.

This is one of the best ones I have seen in a long time. It is clearly a Russian word. But the design is extremely unique. I have never seen this design on any other piece before. I doubt I'll see one in the future, either.

It is a 3D lettering style with a white and blue design inside each letter. Finding such a piece is difficult and you'll have to venture into the quieter areas where artists can do their thing undisturbed.

I have no clue what it says. My best bet is that it says "Raul". ряул?

There are plenty of simpler ones too. Readable lettering style and coherent writing. You wouldn't need a local to figure out what is written.

It says "Lena". A popular name for girls. So, either this could be a piece dedicated to Lena out of love and appreciation or Lena has tagged her name on this wall. I honestly love this chrome style of graffiti. It is 3D and it looks like it is shiny.

What I have really started hating is the use of "silver" paint to achieve that shiny look. I find it extremely tacky and very lazy. It does not appeal to me at all. I look at it like something a 12 year old would do to his first bike. Make it chrome.

Nevertheless, it has still left me speechless because I cannot make out what it says. I love the bold purple outline. I love that the purple is used to create a "Cracking
effect on the wall. But no matter how many times I look at this, the first and last letters are a mystery to me.

And there are many more like this. Some are extremely easy to read no matter how awesome the designs are. And some are extremely difficult to make out what they say no matter how simple the designs are.

When I didn't know to read Russian at all, I found many pieces around the city. Since cleaning and covering up wasn't very popular then, it was easier to find street art. I always loved the look of Russian graffiti. For an outsider, the designs are both ordinary and strange at the same time.

On one hand, I found the designs and lettering similar to English. On the other hand, they were completely different from anything I knew. Due to the similarity in the look of the alphabets, I always thought of them as more hip English. How naive of me. Russian graffiti is in its own weight class.

But yeah, there are tons of English pieces everywhere. Almost all of them are very good, too. English isn't even a second language here, maybe third. So for these artists to make a piece in a third language is very commendable.

I love the melting donut design. If any of you have tried your hands at doodling or graffiti then you know how fun is it to make melting designs. This design was always my favorite to make. Everything would melt, squares, boxes, faces, fire, everything!

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Kharkiv, Ukraine. December 2021.

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