Timur’s Tomb and World War II
The “curse” Timur’s Tomb changed the course of the War two times, the first time when Stalin opened it, and the second when he returned the remains to the tomb.
Stalin ordered anthropologist and historian Mikhail Gerasimov to open the Timur’s Tomb in 1941. At the time, Gerasimov was a known and popular anthropologist famous for reconstructing a face from a skull. His job was to do that with Timur’s skull, and Mikhail succeeded. Soviets opened the Tomb on June 20, 1942. The tomb was immediately filed with odor of camphor, resin, rose and frankincense. Research showed that the odor was coming from the oils used for embalming. Two days after the Soviets opened the Tomb, Hitler and Nazis invaded Russia. The invasion came without formal declaration of War. The operation was known as “Operation Barbarossa”. It is worth noting that three elder men warned Gerasimov and the Soviets that the Tomb is cursed and something might happen. The men told the Soviets that the curse takes effect after 3 days. The Soviet Union suffered numerous defeats at the hand of Hitler. And even though the Nazi were far from conquering Russia, they made progress.
Then, after few months, Stalin started believing in the curse, and ordered that the remains of Timur be returned to the Tomb. Stalin ordered that the process is done with full Islamic burial rights. The Soviets returned the remains to the tomb in December 1942. Nearly a month later, the Nazi surrendered and Stalin won the Battle of Stalingrad. The battle remains as one of the bloodiest in the history of mankind, not just the World War II.