Not sure how suitable it is to a "baby leftist," but I recommend the Chinese documentary "Historical nihilism and the collapse of the USSR" (历史虚无主义与苏联解体), which can be found on Bilibili with Chinese subtitles or on YouTube with English subtitles.

The documentary touches many themes, from the corrosive effect of the denunciation of Stalin (and Lenin) along with the achievements of the Soviet people by post-Stalin Soviet leaders, the creation of a comprador class in the USSR, the actions of western NGOs and "educational institutions" in cultivating said compradors, and the resulting destruction of the USSR. If you do read Chinese, the scrolling comments on Bilibili consistently make the connection to events today.

For any of you following the events at Columbia University:

• The NYPD (!) was asked for a statement by the NYT and could not find a justification for why they were asked to arrest the students at the encampment last Wednesday
• The genocidal (even for Zionist standards) maniac Shai Davidai had his ID deactivated but has not been fired: https://nitter.poast.org/probablyreadit/status/1782408919979045117#m
• CU allowed the tents to stay up this week: https://nitter.poast.org/CallaWalsh/status/1782227447447986347#m
• There is a pro-genocide demonstration happening across the street from campus featuring a flag which is half the flag of the US and half the flag of "Israel"
• Please boycott Columbia: (added later) https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1a1553nciP_A8yjQS7ZlddcwurshFB8Wuc6HzBLGSVyk/viewform?ts=66254440

Go for it.

On the other hand, their understanding of Marxism-Leninism is extremely advanced -- I talked to someone who teaches his fellow members of the 九三学社 (Sept 3 Society) how to apply Marxism-Leninism, dialectical materialism, MZT, etc to scientific and medical work.

I have to say, being in China and away from constantly having to hear pro-imperialist and extremely reactionary nonsense is extremely refreshing. The main downside is that a lot of people have quite... feudal(?) thoughts about marriage.

Zionist collaboration with Nazi Germany went beyond the Haavara Agreement

If anything, he believes the imperialist propaganda that the Yuan and Qing dynasties weren't actually China -- invented specifically to justify the Japanese occupation.