After regaining its independence in 1918, Poland had to face the task of unifying the vision of its future after 123 years of partitions. Russia, Prussia, and Austria-Hungary, which had occupied the Polish territories during tha t time, had determined or inhibited the evolution of the national culture. Attempts to recreate the common history, with which the national future could be built, proved to bean arduous task. Poland had to redefine its cultural heritage, eliminate its shortcomings, and plan for the future without losing the present. An image of the difficult beginnings of the revived Polishness can be gathered from press articles published between 1918 and 1922. The starting date is obvious; the end of the First World War. The end date was symbolically defined by the assassination of President Gabriel Narutowicz in the Zachęta Gallery, during the opening of an exhibition. The perpetrator of this act was Eligiusz Niewiadomski, art historian, critic, artist and employee of the Ministry of Culture and Art. This, undoubtedly, was the perverse fulfilment of the synthesis of life and art, which was so much discussed and promoted after the war. In addition to seeking common ground, the press tackled key topics on the working strategies for a national culture. The attention of journalists was drawn to traditional symbols of Polishness such as the Wawel Royal Castle in Krakow or the Royal Castle in Warsaw, but also to Polish folk art. As there was a shortage of academic staff in academies and universities, there were no adequate role models. New artistic trends were being reviewed in order to determine which type of avant-garde could be transposed to Poland. The Wawel Castle and the almost Viennese love of tradition on the one hand, and the desire to catch up with modernity on the other, marked the two poles between which the ‘independent’ Polish art sought once again its place in the world.

Strength and permeability properties along with microstructural evolution of hardened slurries composed of fly ash from fluidal bed combustion of brown coal and an addition of OPC/BFSC is assessed in this paper. An increase in the amount of fly ash in slurries influences the development of mechanical strength and a decrease of hydraulic conductivity. SEM, XRD, and porosity analyses confirmed formation of watertight microstructures. The structure of slurries is composed of ettringite, C-S-H phase, AFt, and AFm phases. Ettringite crystallises as relatively short needles forming compact clusters or intermixed with the C-S-H phase. The occurring C-S-H phases are mainly of type I – fibrous and type II – honeycomb