Lately, lots of folks have been talking about climate change and the environment, with many people focusing on capitalism and resource exploitation as the major culprits and blaming those systems for our current state.

However, I'm curious about what pollution and environmental practices were like in the former Eastern Bloc.

How bad was pollution there? What was their policy on ecological preservation? Was there an priority in achieving production goals over environmental impact? How much did corruption and bureaucracy play a role in this?