The United Commonwealth of Stravonskaya is a mammoth, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by House of Delegates with a fair hand, and notable for its museums and concert halls, soft-spoken computers, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful population of 7.828 billion Stravonskans are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

The large, liberal, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Dzhuno-na-Petrovu. The average income tax rate is 98.1%.

The frighteningly efficient Stravonskan economy, worth a remarkable 1,511 trillion Labor Vouchers a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Tourism and Book Publishing. Average income is an impressive 193,090 Labor Vouchers, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The armed forces pride themselves on being conventional and predictable, university admissions staff are blindfolded to prevent accidental bias, holidaymakers sleep curled up on the floor as hotel beds are replaced with oversized bookcases, and an extra hand on the leg will give a horse-and-a-half of lead in a hundred jiffies on seven furlongs. Crime is totally unknown. Stravonskaya's national animal is the white-shouldered eagle, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is Secular Pluralism.

Stravonskaya is ranked 3,220^th in the world and 86^th in The Communist Bloc for Most Eco-Friendly Governments, scoring 10,111.52 on the Dolphin Recycling Awareness Index.