On that note, I’d recommend that you not take the writing of a white man from over 100 years ago as your only understanding of socialist

I know you won't read my reply, but I'll answer anyway: it's very simple. Lenin is the only person in history who successfully implemented socialism in practice—there is no one else like him. Stalin was Lenin's successor.

Lenin and not Lukács

I studied Lenin in school.

I haven't read Lukács. He wasn't popular here. Back then, people here were still studying Marx and Engels.