The Itallian State of Russo-Austria is a titanic, cultured nation, ruled by Seraphim I with an iron fist, and renowned for its complete lack of prisons, sprawling nuclear power plants, and ubiquitous missile silos. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless, devout population of 12.683 billion Itallians 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 large, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Law & Order. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Rome. The average income tax rate is 98.3%.

The frighteningly efficient Itallian economy, worth a remarkable 3,752 trillion Pelicans 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, broadly diversified black market in Information Technology, Tourism, Arms Manufacturing, and Trout Farming. 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 295,884 Pelicans, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.2 times as much as the poorest.

Purple armbands are being issued to Violetists for ease of identification, schoolchildren are divided over Seraphim I's "Why Tigers are Cooler than Lions" speech, the newest member of the royal family does not speak a word of the nation's language, and they say insanity is torturing the same citizens over and over again and expecting a different result. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Russo-Austria's national animal is the Pelican, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is Catholicism.

Russo-Austria is ranked 3,501^st in the world and 2^nd in The Third Entente for Most Cultured, scoring 194 on the Snufflebottom-Wiggendum Pentatonic Scale.