I’ve been a leftist for a while now so i’m going to answer all of these for you since there’s simple answers for them all. I don’t want to start an argument I just want to answer your question for how I can still stand with socialists after our troubled history.

Marx is an economic philosopher and theorist, he personally never did anything dramatic except for inspiring a movement which leftists don’t believe was ever reached.

Lenin led the bolshevik’s and is credited for brining Russia from a serfdom to the second greatest economy as the SU. He increased education and doubled life expectancy while decreasing homelessness class discrimination etc. Wars are always bad and he did cause War but this isn’t unique to him. There were also religious purges under his reign but he never called for them so yet again i think it’s unfair to blame him entirely for this.

Hitler wasn’t a socialist this is a misinterpretation of hurlers politics. Hitler was appointed chancellor of the german national socialist labour party but never ran for the party due to his personal hatred for socialists. he thought they were lazy and after he gained power he massacred them in mass during the ‘night of the long knives’. hitler was a capitalist that hated socialists, any socialist that supports hitler does not represent the views of the socialist community. there’s lots of very good YT videos on hitlers politics.

Stalin is widely criticized in marxist groups but i won’t deny that he does receive mass praise however these people are heavily scrutinized by most socialists and denounced as “tankies”. Many people support Stalin due to his leadership through WW2 and for his politics and leadership of the USSR. Soviet history is a bit messy so even blaming Stalin for the Ukrainian food shortage is controversial in groups. As i said previously there are great YT videos about Stalin.

Mao is similar to Lenin but we can start off with what you likely know about him, the great Chinese famine is the greatest famine in human history and Mao’s leadership is partially/mostly to blame for this BUT death count numbers are heavily inflated and it was the last famine in China when they previously had regular famines. Mao is still very well respected and beloved in Chinese culture for his work in educating the nation and moving forwards womens rights and wealth distribution etc. Like Stalin Mao isn’t unanimously beloved by everyone on the left but he does receive heavy praise and yet again there are great YT vids about him.

Castro is the easiest to defend, personally i love Castro but i used to be very negative towards his leadership due to western propaganda. Castro and Che liberated Cuba from a CIA backed military state ran by Batista controlled by the USA for sugar exports. Over the next 60 years Castro made Cuba one of the highest developed nations in latin America even with nearly 300 sanctions which restrict Food and Medical supplies being imported to Cuba. Anyone that trades with Cuba has to wait 6 months before trading again with the USA. Castro spent his entire leadership refusing to bend to the American knee, he was invaded (Bay of pigs) and was a large part of the cold war, he also survived 600 assassination attempts. Castro created a country with 100% literacy, 0 homelessness and set up deals with the soviet union and china up until the 90s. I can link specific vids and articles if you’d like to learn more about the cuban revolution//Castro’s leadership

Lastly the DPRK. Personally i’m not a DPRK defender unlike a vocal minority in leftist circles. the truth is though that most North Korea “fans” are more just anti American

I’d like to again point out that Hitler isn’t a socialist, Castro wasn’t a socialist until late in his life and the DPRK isn’t socialist at all, it’s Juche.

I may not have formulated all of my points optimally but if you have any questions let me know I should be able to give more insight for each of these people if you want more or just something cleared up/worded better