The Federation of Northern Socialist States is a gargantuan, cultured nation, ruled by Sergei Kostroma with a fair hand, and remarkable for its anti-smoking policies, punitive income tax rates, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful population of 12.731 billion NSS Citizens love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

The enormous government juggles the competing demands of Education, Defense, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Potestas. The income tax rate is 100%.

The frighteningly efficient NSS Citizenry economy, worth a remarkable 4,710 trillion NSS Rubles a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Tourism, Book Publishing, and Arms Manufacturing. Average income is an amazing 370,028 NSS Rubles, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The new foreign policy is "why bother invading neighbours when they can be bought wholesale?", warfare increasingly resembles a video game, police officers that upset their bosses get assigned to 24 hour stakeouts of bike sheds, and troublemakers boast about how many times they have to visit their therapist. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Northern Socialist States's national animal is the Swan, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Kostromaism.

Northern Socialist States is ranked 1,163^rd in the world and 24^th in Europe for Largest Publishing Industry, scoring 32,888.99 on the Bella Potter Productivity e-Index.