On June 20, 1941 the grave of
Tamerlane was exhumed by a team of Soviet scientists in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Two days later the Germany army invaded the USSR, launching the Great Patriotic
war and Soviet Central Asia's best known ghost story: that the 14th century
ruler's ghost had triggered the Nazi invasion in response to the violation of
its final resting place. This presentation explores how this ghost story emerged
and analyses why it became so widespread. It places these events into the
greater context of Soviet preservation of Islamic architecture and the
legitimacy of Soviet rule in Central Asia.
Charles Shaw is a Ph.D.
candidate in history at UC-Berkeley specializing in modern Russian and Central
Asian history. He is writing a dissertation comprising several episodes from the
Central Asian experience in World War II, including that of soldiers, laborers,
and cultural workers within the larger Soviet war effort. His research interests
include the creation of Soviet borders, the politics of architectural
preservation, and the Cold War as viewed from Tashkent.
Silk Road House events are sponsored by the Silkroad
Foundation.
