Curse of Timur
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The Curse of Timur or the Curse of Tamerlane (Russian: Проклятие Тамерлана) is the rumor that the tomb of Timur is cursed such that whoever disturbs it will face a calamity. A popular version of the story of the curse holds that when Soviet anthropologists opened the tomb in June 1941,[lower-alpha 1] they found an inscription saying that whoever opened it would unleash an invader worse than him. Less than a week after the tomb was opened, Hitler began the invasion of the Soviet Union, leading many people to believe that it was caused by the curse. In addition, the Soviet victory in the Battle of Stalingrad has been credited to the curse being broken by Timur getting an Islamic reburial about one month before the victory in the battle.