Curse of Timur

Savalin as a still photographer,[4] plus Nikolai Kim as the leader of the film brigade, Malik Qayumov as cameraman, with Arif Tursunov, Kazem Mukhamedov, and Pavel Marshalov as assistants.

The men begged them not to open the tomb, but Ayni shooed them away with a stick[8] and attributed the idea of a curse as a story created after the death of Timur to deter grave robbers, and other members of the crew inspected the manuscript.

[10] Much like the story of the Curse of King Tut,[10] a foul smell emitted from the tomb when it was opened, and the crew experienced technical difficulties: the lights went out but came back on and the electrician was unable to determine a cause.

[a][11] Eventually word of the supposed curse reached Stalin[b] who ordered that a special transport aircraft be provided to return Timur to his tomb in Samarkand.

Five weeks later, not a few days as often claimed,[14] the Red Army experienced its first major victory by winning the Battle of Stalingrad, turning the tide of the war, which was credited to the lifting of the curse.

[17] The first publication in the Soviet Union of the story of the curse in detail was an article in Zvezda Vostoka in 1990, and it was later the subject of a 2004 documentary directed by Aleksandr Fetisov that aired on the TV channel Rossiya.