In the Mexican city of Merida, at the entrance to the Siglo XXI congress center near the Grand Mayan Peace Museum, a monument to the Russian scientist Yuri Knorozov. The scientist is depicted in full growth with his beloved cat Asya in his arms. It was her scientist who even tried to co-author her works.

A plaque with the dates of the scientist's life, a reminder of his discovery and the words spoken by Knorozov during the presentation of the Order of the Aztec Eagle for exceptional services to Mexico were fixed on the pedestal: "I am always a Mexican by heart". The sculpture was based on the photos of the Mexican sculptor Reinaldo Bolio Suarez (Pacelli). The opening ceremony was attended by Knorozova's apprentice doctor of sciences Galina Ershova, who said that her teacher "seems to be returning to Mexico, because he is very respected and loved here".

The appearance of the monument to Knorozov in front of the Mayan Peace Museum is not accidental. In Mexico, the Russian scientist is treated with great respect - he managed what the linguists of the whole world could not do for more than one hundred years - decipher the writing of the natives of Mexico and Guatemala-Maya. It was his work that marked the high award of the Government of Mexico. In Guatemala, Knorozov was awarded the Grand Gold Medal of the President of Guatemala.

The Mayan writing is a set of pictures depicting creatures with brutal grimaces. One of the researchers of the mysterious drawings, more reminiscent of comics, eventually wrote an article entitled "Deciphering the Maya letter is an insoluble problem". This article, which caught the eye of the student of the historical faculty of Moscow State University Yuri Knorozov, and was the starting point, spurred the excitement of the researcher. Knorozov was a descendant of a highly educated intelligent family. He failed to become an officer, like his father and older brothers. Dismissed health. During the war, like all students of Kharkov State University, digging trenches, then there was occupation and life in the shed. In February 1943, he took his mother and sister across the front line to Voronezh and came to the military enlistment office. However, he was again found unfit for service in the army. Then he went to Moscow, and resumed his studies at the Department of Ethnography of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University.

Then he got an article about the impossibility of reading the texts of the Maya. And the prohibition of the leading American linguist Erik Thompson, superimposed on this subject, the young scientist was of little interest. In postgraduate study he was not accepted, because during the war the family was in the territory occupied by the enemy. Even the largest at that time ethnographers Sergey Tolstov and Sergey Tokarev could not help. For the same reason Knorozov was long and forbidden.