The Anomaly Research Zone of Progressa Island is a massive, cultured nation, ruled by Trofim Lysenko with an iron fist, and remarkable for its avowedly heterosexual populace, smutty television, and prohibition of alcohol. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 4.45 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, socially-minded, 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 92.0%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Progressa Islandian economy, worth 831 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, Door-to-door Insurance Sales, and Book Publishing. 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 impressive 186,945 Shastis, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Professionals are ready to retire by the time they receive permission to use their credentials, small shoes often wash up on the beach, mountain rescue missions can end with more people lost than found, and wrongful arrests abound as 'criminals' blame the guy next to them. 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 287,489^th in the world and 438^th in The League for Highest Food Quality, scoring 4.14 on the Meeshlin-Starr Index.