Do you mean back to FDR-era policies, or are you using socialism as a stand in for the tyrannical communist governments of USSR et al?

A lot of the best things we have in the modern world are "socialism". Libraries and parks are socialist. Socialism isn't a dirty word, nor is it an argument or a criticism.

This is why definition of terms is so important in discussions of this type. The word socialism/socialist has been bastardized and propagandized beyond comprehension now. Socialism covers a broad range of potential policies and structures, but in modern discourse the average person seems to slot it in almost exclusively to mean government tyranny and communism. Meanwhile communism now seems to mean evil beyond any consideration.

> Socialism isn't a dirty word,

It is, for people like me, who have actually experienced living under a socialist regime.

Was it the socialism or the autocracy, behind thr veil, which made it so unpleasant?

The socialism, of course. Unlike socialism, autocracy can be prosperous.

Is there somewhere I can read more about it? Because there are democratic socialist countries doing quite well (especially in Scandinavia), and autocracies of all kinds doing poorly (like Venezuela).

Contrary to popular myth, the model socialist Scandinavian country, Sweden, is not socialist. [0]

They were more socialist in the 1970s, when the country suffered greatly under the socialist government. Popular writer Astrid Lindgren was taxed 102% of her income at one point. [1]

[0]: https://scandinaviafacts.com/is-sweden-socialist/

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomperipossa_in_Monismania