  The asymmetry parameter P was measured for the elastic pion-proton scattering
in the very backward angular region of theta_cm ~ 150-170^o at several pion
beam energies in the invariant mass range containing most of the pion-proton
resonances.
  The general goal of the experimental program was to provide new data for
partial wave analyses in order to resolve their uncertainties in the baryon
resonance region to allow the unambiguous baryon spectrum reconstructions.
Until recently the parameter P was not measured in the examined domain that
might be explained by the extremely low cross section. At the same time the
predictions of various partial wave analyses are far from agreement in some
kinematic areas and specifically those areas were chosen for the measurements
where the disagreement is most pronouncing.
  The experiment was performed at the ITEP U-10 proton synchrotron, Moscow, by
the ITEP-PNPI collaboration in the latest 5 years.
