Guard-mountain. A novel from the mouths of the people

Stepan Pushyk visited Yevdokia Yurchak in the mountain village of Polyk, located above the river Bystrytsia Nadvirnyanska, to record wedding songs. But it turned out that the woman kept much more treasures in her memory: fairy tales, legends, tales, riddles, proverbs, beliefs... And the most valuable thing is the history of the Carpathian region of the 20th century, which was reflected in the fates of her relatives, neighbors and her own life path .

For almost five years, Stepan Pushyk came from Ivano-Frankivsk to Polyk and recorded Yevdokia Yurchak on a tape recorder, and sometimes she also came to the city. The result was a book of folklore materials "The Golden Tower". But from the very beginning, the writer had the idea of ​​a novel from the mouths of the people "Guardian Mountain". From the mouth of Yevdokia Yurchak, who became the prototype of the main character - Maria Marchak.

After its publication in a magazine in 1980, the novel went through three reprints during the first decade, gaining readership and recognition in literary circles. Oles Gonchar wrote in his diary: "A story from a tape recorder, but what a thing! Really popular. A truly artistic study of folk psychology. Mind, wit, depth and looseness. This is what our literary literature needs today...". Already in 1990, Stepan Pushyk became a laureate of the Shevchenko Prize.

Unfortunately, in the 1980s, Soviet censorship still existed, and in order for the book to be published, the authors and editors had to remove certain chapters or soften certain episodes, which was not the case with "Strazh-Gora". However, in 2004, Stepan Pushyk made a new edition of the novel. It is this most complete version that we present in our publication.