Kraków 18 stycznia 1945 roku. Kilka uwag do maksiproblemu .......... 57

KRAKOW, JANUARY 18, 1945. A FEW COMMENTS ON THE MAXI PROBLEM

On January 18, 1945, Krakow, the occupation “capital” of the Generalgouvernement, was liberated by the troops of the Red Army. The concept of “liberation” is the key here in the analysis of social expectations and attitudes of that time, hence the problem in the title maxi. However, the earliest assessments of the phenomenon related to the expulsion of the German occupier from Krakow underwent a rather impressive evolution. It was associated primarily with the so-called historical policy, i.e. a variety of policy in the field of historical science. The evolution of these concepts remains the essence of the text. This evolution is an intriguing phenomenon. I define its amplitude between “liberation” and “new Soviet occupation”. The analysis of the extensive source material from that first period, just after January 18, 1945, clearly proves that the first social feeling of the vast majority of the city’s inhabitants was liberation by the Red Army. Only the subsequent months and years, related primarily to the political system imposed by the communists, polarized this concept in favor of more and more political or ideological ones. This was changed by the turning point in 1989.