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This paper analyses the influence of microstructural anisotropy of aprogressively drawn pearlitic steel (orientation of pearlitic lamellae in the drawingdirection) on the microscopic and macroscopic evolution of cracking paths produced byfatigue and fracture. The fatigue crack path is always contained in the transversesection of the wires, i.e., the subcritical propagation develops under a global mode I, sothat the main crack path is associated with mode I and some very local deflections takeplace to produce a roughness in the fatigue crack path depending on the drawing level.The fracture crack path evolves from a global mode I propagation following thetransverse plane in slightly drawn steels (including the hot rolled bar that is not colddrawn at all) to a global mixed-mode propagation associated with crack deflection inintermediate and heavily drawn steels (the latter with a strong mode II component), thedeviation angle being an increasing function of the drawing degree in the steel.