I tried to squeeze everything in a comment. But that did not work. So here is a more extensive answer.
The common block is rarely used in modern Fortran and its usage has long been deprecated. For at least the past 3 decades, modules have been the official proper way of data sharing in Fortran. The utilities of modules in Python and Fortran are almost identical (though Python module organization as a hierarchy of folders is a bit more flexible than what can be done in Fortran). Here is an example
module dataSharing
real :: exampleModuleVariable = 0.
end module dataSharing
program main
call print()
end program main
subroutine print()
use dataSharing, only: exampleModuleVariable
write(*,*) "exampleModuleVariable before = ", exampleModuleVariable
exampleModuleVariable = 1.
write(*,*) "exampleModuleVariable after = ", exampleModuleVariable
end subroutine print
But before Fortran modules, specifically in FORTRAN77, the primary method of data sharing was through areas of storage known as common blocks. A common area of storage (which may be either named or unnamed) could be defined via the following syntax:
program main
real :: exampleModuleVariable = 0.
common / dataSharing / exampleModuleVariable
call print()
end program main
subroutine print()
common / dataSharing / exampleModuleVariable
write(*,*) "exampleModuleVariable before = ", exampleModuleVariable
exampleModuleVariable = 1.
write(*,*) "exampleModuleVariable after = ", exampleModuleVariable
end subroutine print
The above two codes (one with module and the other with common) are functionally equivalent. But the module style is strongly preferred to the other older F77 deprecated approach. If you follow the Fortran module style, its translation to a Python module should be fairly easy as the concepts are highly similar in both languages, although the syntax is slightly different. I do not think if C has anything comparable to a common block and certainly does not have the concept of modules. However, C++20 has recently added the concept of modules to C++.
One last thing: The Oracle F77 manual is too old to rely on, except for maintaining legacy F77 codes. The Intel, HP/Cray, and IBM Fortran manuals are quite modern and their compilers support all or most of the latest features of modern Fortran (2018/2008/2003). So are GNU, NAG, and NVIDIA Fortran compilers.