The United Socialist States of Zaratov is a gargantuan, efficient nation, ruled by Supreme Kommissar Sovyetskaga-Soyuza with an iron fist, and renowned for its rampant corporate plagiarism, ban on automobiles, and stringent health and safety legislation. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 14.412 billion Zaratovians 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, socially-minded, well-organized government is effectively ruled by the Department of Defense, with Law & Order and Education also on the agenda, while Spirituality and International Aid receive no funds. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Derzhost. The income tax rate is 100%.

The frighteningly efficient Zaratovian economy, worth a remarkable 8,063 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 an enormous, deeply entrenched, quite specialized black market in Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, and Beef-Based Agriculture. 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 a breathtaking 559,493 Rubles, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Phone taps are frequently carried out by the police, the practice of capital punishment proves divisive, police drones follow every suspected Peeping Tom, and everyone suspects that everyone else is a terrorist. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Zaratov's national animal is the Great Gray Owl, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is State Atheism.

Zaratov is ranked 207,384^th in the world and 135^th in The Leftist Assembly for Largest Automobile Manufacturing Sector, scoring -3.74 on the Henry Ford Productivity Index.