But there were basically two reasons that motivated people to go into the forest and live illegally, to form groups and seek weapons. The first: the repressions by Soviet security agencies against various groups of the population, which included Aizsargi, members of national organisations, policemen during the German occupation, legionnaires, and civil administration employees. The second reason: illegal mobilisation into the Red Army. About 20% of the mobilised men avoided the draft into the Red Army, subsequently living illegally, and many later joined the ranks of the resistance movement.

National partisans existed as early as 1941, when the Battle of Ragana took place. On 1 July of that year, Red Army soldiers, fleeing in a panic from German troops, broke into Sēja parish on their way and still managed (!) to kill two women whose “crime” was the red-white-red flag hoisted on a mast, because they had heard “God Bless Latvia!” on the radio after a 378-day interruption, along with the news of the communists being driven out of Riga. Lieutenant Visvaldis Brūniņš and his 30-man unit learned of the Red Army soldiers' violence. They set up an ambush in the vicinity of the Straupe highway. However, their combat skills proved insufficient, and eight men perished in the fight against the Russians.