Every country honors and respects its partisans who have given their lives in the fight against oppressors. Latvia also has a long history of partisan warfare. Already near the end of 1918, the people of Latgale began to show their dissatisfaction with the Bolsheviks, and some tens of armed men initiated the fight against them in the woods around Balvi. Partisians also aided the Latvian Army as it came into being. For heroism in combat many of them were awarded the highest military decoration, the Order of Lacplesis ("Bear-Slayer", the protagonist of Andrejs Pumpurs" 19th-century epic poem). Monuments were raised to honor the fallen partisans during Latvia`s independence, which lasted until 1940.