The Soviet Socialist Republic of Astastinia is a massive, genial nation, ruled by Shokaku Zhou with an even hand, and notable for its anti-smoking policies, multi-spousal wedding ceremonies, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate population of 2.763 billion Astastinians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded morass — juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Leningrad II. The average income tax rate is 95.2%.

The strong Astastinian economy, worth 258 trillion credits a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Arms Manufacturing and Trout Farming. Average income is 93,706 credits, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The new Refuse Hills housing development is under construction, museums stand half-empty as all foreign exhibits are returned to their countries of origin, invasive species are hunted by the gendarmerie, and the phrase 'spreading like wildfire' is no longer in the public lexicon. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Astastinia's national animal is the Brown bear, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Astastinia is ranked 11,436^th in the world and 323^rd in The Communist Bloc for Most Advanced Public Education, scoring 10,506.63 on the Edu-tellignce® Test Score.