This is a bit of an idealistic look at things, rather than a materialist outlook. Socialist countries, past and present, have been faced with real problems. Their issues weren’t about “finding the right leader” or “picking the right recipe,” but largely real struggles that any country tasked with needing rapid industrialization while defending against foreign invasion and subversion would need to.

Socialism isn’t about deciding on the right recipe, but analyzing historical progression and its laws so as to master them and wield them in our favor. No socialist country has been an outright “failure,” not even the ones that no longee exist.