The Anomaly Research Zone of Progressa Island is a mammoth, efficient nation, ruled by Trofim Lysenko with an iron fist, and remarkable for its closed borders, anti-smoking policies, and sprawling nuclear power plants. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 9.193 billion inhabitants of the Island of Progress are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The large, corrupt, moralistic, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Magnitoshakhtinsk. The average income tax rate is 94.5%.

The frighteningly efficient Progressa Islandian economy, worth a remarkable 2,020 trillion Shastis a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is an enormous, deeply entrenched black market in Arms Manufacturing, Uranium Mining, Information Technology, and Door-to-door Insurance Sales. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is an amazing 219,766 Shastis, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Children and steel are ubiquitous features of the nethermost depths of Progressa Island, sick inhabitants of the Island of Progress are hair today and gone tomorrow, the government conducts negotiations with drawings after firing multilinguals for treason, and mathematics majors learn about new ways to model their crushing debt. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Progressa Island's national animal is the Owl, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to toxic air pollution, and its national religion is The Cult of Personality of Lysenko.

Progressa Island is ranked 26,829^th in the world and 59^th in The League for Most Developed, scoring 83.58 on the Human Development Index.