ABSTRACT
Until the end of the 1960s environmental degradation in the formerly socialist countries was of a pattern very similar to that in the rest of the industrialized world. As in the West, the environment was thought of as a free good; natural resources were drastically underpriced, and their consumption was generously encouraged. Environmental awareness among high-level officials did accomplish some preservation of natural sites. Official socialist environmental ideology combined sharp criticism of market economies' environmental failures with deep secrecy or falsified statements about the situation at home. During the socialist regime public participation in environmental activities was channeled only through controlled institutions such as the National Committee for Protection of Nature and through professional associations of environmental scientists and naturalists. The Environmental Protection Act specified that the new ministry would be the country's primary institution charged with environmental protection and with conservation and rehabilitation of water, air, soil, and other such regulated resources.
