The People's Republic of Zarkona is a very large, orderly nation, remarkable for its parental licensing program, free-roaming dinosaurs, and restrictive gun laws. The compassionate, cynical, devout population of 450 million Zarkonans 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 enormous, corrupt, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Law & Order. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Esterabad. The average income tax rate is 91.6%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The strong Zarkonan economy, worth 40.4 trillion rubles 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 a slick, highly efficient, quite specialized black market in Information Technology, Trout Farming, Arms Manufacturing, and Tourism. 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 89,702 rubles, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.5 times as much as the poorest.

Supervisors in Zarkona commonly tie bells on their necks to alert employees of their presence, the government subsidizes those who produce the worst results, umbrellas are back in fashion, and soldiers are equipped with multi-million ruble battlesuits. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Zarkona's national animal is the fox, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Zarkona is ranked 15,032^nd in the world and 2^nd in Squeaky Squeakers for Most Compassionate Citizens, scoring 57.61 on the Kitten Softness Rating.