The Soviet Union has fallen, and the capitalist revolution is at hand. Paula T. Barnum, granddaughter of the circus mogul and heiress to his talents, is sent from America to supervise the revolution. To lead it, she chooses Aven, a middle-level functionary in the old Ministry of Propaganda, who will rise to become the first Tsar of Mother Russia in over a century. A fast-paced socioeconomic satire, RU$$IA overflows with both free-wheeling economic theory and hilarity. Blessed with unrestrained free-market Reaganomics, Russia may well become the quintessential model of capitalist perfection.