In the glowing sunshine, the statue Motherland Calls, at 85 metres slighter bigger than the Statue of Liberty, towered dramatically over Volgograd and the Mamayev Kurgan’s memorial complex, as an imperious beacon of safety, almost protecting the city from invaders, menacingly wielding a sword. Fans climbed the stairs of the memorial complex, snapped photos and watched the changing of the guard. They had come from everywhere: Tunisia, Spain, Morocco, Colombia and Novosibirsk. The Tunisians donned red shirts, were draped in flags and scarfs and wore fezes.
Downtown, near the Volga, Russia’s mightily meandering river, the scene wasn’t much different. The Tunisians were singing and flooding the wide avenues of Volgograd. They had come with sleeper trains from the Russian capital and were gearing up for Tunisia’s fifth World Cup. Their march conquered the inner city, and yet amid the sea of red, England fans were conspicuously outnumbered.
At Volgograd’s main railway station, the English Supporters Federation were on hand to offer advice as the 12-hour sleeper from Rostov-on-Don and the 20-hour long-haul train from Moscow arrived. They estimated that fewer than 3,000 England fans had made the trip to Volgograd.
“We have been told that Russian don’t like English,” said England fan Ellen Love, 24, and a designer who made her way en-route to London from South Korea to Russia’s south. “The media have scarred a lot of people, but on a human level that is not the case. The Russians can offer us a lot and we can offer them a lot.”
But the England fans didn’t encounter a horror scenario. On a day of scorching temperatures and blue skies, locals and fans strolled through the city. Some even took a dip in the Volga. In Volgograd, the Euro 2016 doom scenario was simply inconceivable. During the weekend local authorities had called in the local hoodlums, including far-right extremists. They were told in no uncertain terms that harassing the English was out of the question.
Relations between Russia and England had recently soured following the attempted assassination of the Russian spy Sergei Skripal on British soil and so English fans were deterred from making the long and arduous journey to Volgograd, a city that is closer to Tehran than Moscow.
The Three Lions — or at least the one-man show in the form of Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane — won their opening match against Tunisia, but the fans had a bigger souvenir to take home: the genuine, Russian hospitality. “It is been lovely,” said Tom, Ellen’s boyfriend. “The Russians have been welcoming. We haven’t had a single problem. We have shared beers and chatted. We came here with the English and Western press in mind, who didn’t paint a positive picture of Russia — but the reality is very different.”