The Anomaly Research Zone of Progressa Island is a mammoth, cultured nation, ruled by Trofim Lysenko with an iron fist, and renowned for its barren, inhospitable landscape, frequent executions, and keen interest in outer space. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 9.445 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, 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 94.9%.

The frighteningly efficient Progressa Islandian economy, worth a remarkable 2,107 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, Information Technology, and Door-to-door Insurance Sales. 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 amazing 223,089 Shastis, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

International organisations everywhere are united in their condemnation of the nation's zombified military (Progressa Island has found 1 easter egg), those on cloud nine have been relocated to cloud negative six, it is illegal to brush crumbs off your clothing outdoors, and budding hospital branches are leaving arborists stumped. 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 260,593^rd in the world and 3,937^th in The North Pacific for Fattest Citizens, with 7.04 Obesity Rate.