The Anomaly Research Zone of Progressa Island is a mammoth, cultured nation, ruled by Trofim Lysenko with an iron fist, and renowned for its state-planned economy, smutty television, and anti-smoking policies. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 9.483 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 95.0%.

The frighteningly efficient Progressa Islandian economy, worth a remarkable 2,123 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 223,959 Shastis, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Shoppers carry protractors to verify their produce, it isn't 'real music' without several cannons, people faint regularly as they get stuck with compulsory vaccinations, and half of Progressa Islandian history is deemed too unpatriotic to be mentioned in textbooks. 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 157,181^st in the world and 2,329^th in The North Pacific for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring 379.94 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.