The United Socialist States of Nivgrad is a titanic, orderly nation, ruled by General Secretary Andrei Kedrov with an iron fist, and remarkable for its strictly enforced bedtime, frequent executions, and devotion to social welfare. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 22.11 billion Nivgradians 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 enormous, 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 Nivgrad City. The income tax rate is 100%.

The frighteningly efficient Nivgradian economy, worth a remarkable 6,183 trillion Nivgradian Marks a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector is led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Arms Manufacturing, Uranium Mining, and Beef-Based Agriculture. Average income is an amazing 279,682 Nivgradian Marks, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Vital intelligence-gathering activities are put on hold as agents return home for seduction training and advanced poker instruction, civil engineers are undermining sinkholes, all Nivgradians love the taste of self-sufficiency, and the threat of economic apocalypse brings out the best in people. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Nivgrad's national animal is the Arctic Caterpiller, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

Nivgrad is ranked 309,086^th in the world and 1,427^th in Europeia for Most Cultured, scoring -17 on the Snufflebottom-Wiggendum Pentatonic Scale.