June 22, 1941 - Operation Barbarossa commences with a bombing of cities in the Soviet-occupied part of Poland, and artillery attacks on the entire eastern front. Most likely some of
Мастер's relatives participated in this attack, although it's not always easy to tell, as many of them had these curious gaps in their CVs in the 1930s and 1940s.
Although this operation initially went badly for the Soviet Union, ultimately they prevailed, and the Soviet flag went up over the Reichstag on May 2, 1945. The Third Reich soon passed into history, Germany was occupied and ultimately divided for forty years, much of Europe was brought into the Soviet sphere, and many people were severely displaced. The latter profoundly affected the lives of people still not born for a few decades, including some IRU members.
Three days previously, Soviet archeologists had opened the tomb of Timur the Tartar in Uzbekistan. It is claimed that the tomb had an inscription,
When I rise from the dead, the world shall tremble.
and that inside the casket, there was a curse,
Whomsoever opens my tomb shall unleash an invader more terrible than I.
The curse worked.