The choice of location for the memorial ensemble was determined by the nearby site of the Āpuznieki battle on 1 January 1946, where the national partisans of the Kabile group repelled an attack by numerically superior Cheka military units and inflicted heavy losses upon them. Today, the ancient battle is commemorated here by the graves of two fallen partisans, Emīls Šmits and Ādolfs Kūrējs, and the 'crooked pine', which, according to the memories of the fighters, marked the group's western outpost. (...)