Yakov Gordin wrote novellas about the Northern War—“Let Every Person Fulfill Their Duty”—about the Decembrists—“After the Uprising”—about the death of Pushkin, about Tolstoy, and about the first Russian historian Tatishchev. Leningrad theaters staged several plays by the writer on historical themes. The new novella by Ya. Gordin, “The Three Wars of Benito Juárez,” tells the fate of Mexico’s national hero, who led the struggle of patriots against reactionary and self-serving generals and clerics in the mid-19th century—and then against the French invaders as well. Economic crises, counterrevolutionary rebellions, the threat of foreign invasion, the weakness and betrayal of yesterday’s allies—nothing could break Juárez’s will: the Indian from a mountain settlement who became the wise and far-sighted leader of the Mexican people.