The Most Serene Imperium of Volgadan is a massive, cultured nation, ruled by Andreas IV Atreides with an iron fist, and remarkable for its public floggings, ubiquitous missile silos, and anti-smoking policies. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, humorless, devout population of 4.698 billion Volgadanians are ruled by a mostly-benevolent dictator, who grants the populace the freedom to live their own lives but watches carefully for anyone to slip up.

The medium-sized, corrupt, well-organized government prioritizes Defense, with Industry, Spirituality, and Law & Order also on the agenda, while Social Policy is ignored. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of The Landsraad. The average income tax rate is 67.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Volgadanian economy, worth 841 trillion solariis a year, is broadly diversified and mostly comprised of black market activity, especially in Arms Manufacturing, Retail, Uranium Mining, and Beef-Based Agriculture. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 179,189 solariis, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.9 times as much as the poorest.

It turns out that you actually can put a price on intangible cultural heritage, property subletting is going underground, the realistic depiction of tentacles is on the core syllabus of most art schools, and citizens living in underground cities have developed a healthy green glow. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Volgadan's national animal is the Pisces, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its national religion is Roman Catholicism.

Volgadan is ranked 80,330^th in the world and 53^rd in Catholic for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 98.48 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.