Volgograd: One day, one play
Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad), Russia, 2012. A football match at the old Rotor stadium was the last before it was demolished to make way for a new arena built for the 2018 World Cup.
Volgograd, one of Russia’s most neglected and impoverished major cities, was almost completely destroyed during the Battle of Stalingrad. Beyond the Mamayev Kurgan memorial with its monumental statue “The Motherland Calls” and the Volga River, the local football club Rotor remains the city’s main attraction.
This report is about the city through its fans, for whom football is a true escape.
Mamayev Kurgan. Guard of honor at The Motherland Calls memorial.
Old Rotor stadium. Buying tickets.
Mamayev Kurgan Memorial. Honor guard soldiers suffer from the exhausting heat.
Visit the Stalingrad Cultural Center and the J. V. Stalin Museum, and you will get answers to the questions that interest you. Photo with a wax figure of Stalin.
Inscription on the staircase: “For Our Soviet Motherland!”
Police at the stadium during a football match.
Hools during a football match.
A family trip to a football match.
A boy looks at a staged war relic display—history reduced to a roadside attraction.
Fans on match day in front of the stadium on the bank of the Volga river.
A man carries boxes of sunflower seeds to the stadium before the match.
Fans at the old Rotor stadium during a football match.
