Krakow in the twentieth century and modern times

 During the Great War (World War I), the Russian army approached Kraków, a few points of the Fortress took part in the fighting, but there was no shelling and destruction of the city itself.

In May 1917, the city was visited for the last time by the monarch of the Habsburg dynasty - young Emperor Charles I of Habsburg. In October 1918, the Austrian garrison was disarmed and a return to reborn Poland became a fact.

After the First World War, Krakow continued to be an important cultural and political center of Poland. German troops occupied Cracow on September 6, 1939, six days after the outbreak of World War II. Krakow became the capital of the General Government, which was administered by Hans Frank - a close associate of Hitler. The Germans wanted to use Poles as a source of cheap labour, at the same time Germanizing them. They believed that Krakow was suitable for the capital and Germanization better than Warsaw because of the location close to the former border with Germany and for smaller sizes.

On January 17, 1945, the army of the Red Army, under the command of Ivan Koniew, made an encirclement manoeuvre and then entered the city. According to Russian sources, the NKVD group prevented the planting of mined buildings - May 10, 2007, the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, honoured two officers:

Alexei Botian - the title of the Hero of Russia

Jewhenij Berezniak - Order for Merit for the fourth class Homeland.

The story of the Red Army manoeuvre, which saved the city from destruction and preventing it from blowing up buildings was often recalled in the PRL period, but now Polish historians recognize it as completely false, created by propaganda to cement the Polish-Soviet friendship. In fact, the Soviet offensive plan envisaged the destruction of the German army defending Cracow using heavy artillery, and it was not implemented because of the stronger than expected resistance of the Germans and the slower advancing of the Red Army from the south through the mountain areas. However, the city's architecture was not free of losses - in January 1945, the USSR Military Air Force dropped an air bomb on Wawel, which seriously damaged the Wawel Cathedral, and Soviet artillery and aviation destroyed and damaged about 450 buildings of the city, including Śródmieście (m.in. around the Main Railway Station).

The town's community began organizing and rebuilding the city after the war. In later years, people's power began the construction of Nowa Huta - a working-class city, which was later incorporated into the borders of Krakow.

On May 3, 1946, in March 1968 and on May 15, 1977, students of Krakow's universities protested. The first Student Solidarity Committee in Poland was created in Krakow.