The Republic of Baltasinsky District is a huge, cultured nation, remarkable for its frequent executions, keen interest in outer space, and state-planned economy. The hard-nosed, devout population of 552 million Baltasinsky Districtians are prohibited from doing almost everything except voting, which they do timidly and conservatively.

The large, moralistic, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Industry. The average income tax rate is 61.3%.

The powerhouse Baltasinsky Districtian economy, worth 43.4 trillion Ducats 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 Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, Uranium Mining, and Woodchip Exports. 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 78,546 Ducats, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 4.8 times as much as the poorest.

Power to the people comes from the barrel of a gun, the working classes live and die on the fields of the farming communes, political visitors are forced to stop ten paces from Leader's throne, and prisons are filled with the cackles and sobs of a deranged inmate population. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Baltasinsky District's national animal is the Bear, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Baltasinsky District is ranked 207,685^th in the world and 322^nd in Novaya Zemlya for Largest Insurance Industry, scoring -2.37 on the Risk Expulsion Effectiveness Rating.