Reddit mentions of Mass Culture in Soviet Russia: Tales, Poems, Songs, Movies, Plays, and Folklore, 1917–1953

I'm curious to hear more of your thoughts on it if you keep reading!

I think "utopian collectivist" is fair because it truly was a utopian ideology in the general sense - it was a blueprint for a system that was not just better but ideal, the "end of history", this is in Marx not just Lenin and was agreed by all those (Bolshevik and otherwise) who supported the Soviet experiment - and it was collectivist rather than individualist, which no Bolshevik would deny. It's not judgmental. I think it's a fair term.

I do have a background in Austrian economics although by the time of writing the dissertation, and now, I find it extremely flawed and wanting in it's current form. I have also always been emotionally connected to socialism in various forms, and was raised in a socialist family.

I do think the "fault" is in the ideas, but it is true that the particular outcome might have been very different under different circumstances, as must always be the case. You'll see more about my thoughts on this if you keep reading.

I have read plenty by Lenin and other Bolsheviks against reformism, along with some of their contemporaries, and also some more recent/modern Marxist writers on the subject, writing in the 1940s, 1960s, and later. (Some post-Lenin writers I have read, aside from Stalin and Soviet writers, include Mattick, Eastman, Shachtman, Draper).

(Yes, I've read Hal Draper and have read that article before.)

You might find it interesting to read what those outside Russia who were in favor of the Bolsheviks before the revolution wrote as it happened - a few saw right away that it would end as it did, many supported it for a long time and closed their eyes to any problems.

You might enjoy [this] (http://www.marxists.org/archive/eastman/1938/end-socialism.htm) by Eastman, and as for utopianism, you might enjoy several things which you can find quoted in my dissertation including
‘Proletarian Poetry,’ The Labour Monthly, Bogdanov, pp. 357-362; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/bogdanov/1923/proletarian-poetry.htm

von James Geldern and Richard Sites, Mass Culture in Soviet Russia, (Indiana, 1995), including Kirillov, Vladimir. “The Iron Messiah,” and
Innokenty Zhukov, ‘Voyage of the Red Star Pioneer Troop to Wonderland’

And from a couple of famous Bolsheviks:

Leon Trotsky, ‘What Is Proletarian Culture, and Is It Possible?’, available at: http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1923/art/tia23c.htm

E.A. Preobrazhensky, From N.E.P. to Socialism: A Glance Into the Future of Russia and Europe, (London, 1973)
http://www.marxists.org/archive/preobrazhensky/1921/fromnep/index.html