Will pollution kill the revolution?

CZECHOSLOVAKIA; POLAND; EASTERN Europe

This article discusses the effects of communist industrial pollution in Eastern Europe. A nightmarish panorama spreads out from the hillock near Bilina, Czechoslovakia. A gigantic black pit, the Gorky strip coal mine, runs on the left all the way to the horizon. Faced with such economic uncertainties, leaders intensely debate how to balance economic reforms with environmental cleanup and protection. Whether the revolutions in Central Europe ultimately succeed or fail is a matter of global concern. Regional stability depends on these governments establishing their legitimacy, says Frank Loy, president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States and for eight years president of the Environmental Defense Fund -- and that legitimacy depends on solving environmental problems. Loy speaks of success as "clinching the Cold War." INSET: From dissident to deputy.