Memes

The USSR started to trend downwards as a result of sabotage with liberalization and reforms. It was then fully dissolved illegally and was catastrophic to all (now former)soviet states. Then NATO/US bombed the fuck out of Yugoslavia and now we have a huge fascism problem.

Contrast the USSR in which the pseudoscientific beliefs of a central authority figure turned what could have been a brief and localized food shortage into a full-blown famine spanning the entire union.

You are seriously not talking about Holodomor are you? The USSR did its best to help after Kulaks, who were against collectivization, sabotaged their farms and killed their livestocks. And that famine is always used by fascists as a point against communism.

skimmed the essay you linked well enough to see that it does not address the anarchist critique of state “socialism,”

So you did not read it, typical of an anarkiddie.... Your aversion to authority is also what makes it really easy for counter-revolutionaries to completely screw over revolutions. Socialism is the transition towards communism and you don't just press the button to become instantly communist, not when classes exist.

totalitarian dictatorship

Yep, the classic of folding both communism and fascism into one fold to depict both as equally horrible. This is just doing the work for the ruling class for free.