Well Marxism isn’t about individualism or freedom [ necessarily ]. When Marx was in the second international workers organization, he wrote to Engels about happily trying to get rid this nonsense about ‘rights’ that his peers were trying to put in the organization’s constitution. Marx is a materialist, so abstract things like individual freedom, property rights, things that we may call essences, these are really fictitious mental constructs that are a result of the distribution of the means of production. That is why Marx’s theory of history is not one of ideas or rights realization, but of class conflict over production. Marx saw Man as a class species, not necessarily as individuals. He thought we were a kind of collective blob, being similar in all facets and likeness. Marx’s collaborator, Engels, boosted that 5 workers can be switch with 5 other workers and it would be the same amount of production and quality.
Another point with Marx’s historical interpretation, is that we as human beings are governed by our economical position. If we are bourgeois then we think like bourgeois, if we are proletarian then we think as such. Hence the perverse rise of polylogicism that Mises talks about and also why Marx’s greatest defense of his theories was ‘Oh well those who critique me are just bourgeois’ Oddly enough one wonders how Marx, a bourgeois, was able to divine these concepts concerning the proletariat since he himself was not one and that has really been the problem of socialist thought. Many of their greatest theorists were bourgeois or came from bourgeois backgrounds. They were intellectuals. Few socialists were actually peasant proletariat.
Due to some lingering Hegelian thinking though, Marx doesn’t really go into detail about what the future will look like under socialism. I think perhaps the best, and by best I mean most frightening, is the writings of Morelly who was an unknown French writer during the 18th century. He laid out a series of horrible living standards in which we all have to eat together, constantly labor, nobody owns anything, we all wear gray so there is no difference between individuals, there are no bedtime fairy tale stories in order to make sure there are no fanciful idealistic minds and that these laws will be set in stone, unchanging until the end of time and any transgression will result in the death penalty. Its his famous work called Code de la Nature [ The Code of Nature ] and I’m trying to find an English edition because I’m only starting to learn French but I can’t find one so looks like I will have to translate it myself. French rosetta stone learning hoooo…
Anyways there is more delightful utopianism in the writings of Charles Fourier who thinks ocean’s will turn into lemonade, roasted chickens will fly into our mouths and that the beasts of the world will be replaced by their passive antithesis. A lion will turn into an anti-lion, one in which coexists with man and whom man can consort with without fear of being eaten. Rather interesting fellow. Anyways for more information about what I just discussed here are some articles and books on the subject.
The Socialist Tradition by Alexander Gray [ This deals with all the Socialist thought from Thomas Moore to Lenin, a very good book ]
Requiem for Marx edited by Yuri Maltsev [ A book containing well written articles on Marx. I particularly recommend the first one by David Gordon and the last one by Murray Rothbard ]
Marxism UnMasked by Ludwig von Mises [ A book containing a series of lectures by Mises in 1954, rather good in points but the framework of the book is disorganized obviously due to the fact it is direct from the lectures ]
History of Economic Thought vol. II by Murray Rothbard [ A book that deals with all of economic thought but also communists. Rothbard covers Graccus Babeuf, Gabriel Mably, Lassalle, Saint-Simon, Morelly, Marx, and I think Fourier. He doesn’t go in depth though except for Marx. For a more in depth critique of these people’s works then I would recommend the first book by Alexander Gray ]
if you need more sources, I have more but I think you will get a good helping of socialist thought by reading these.