Question I have is whether they were always evil and kept it suppressed because they knew it was unacceptable to voice or if today they've been made extraordinarily evil.

My theory is they always had the capacity for evil, since their ideology not only doesn't have limiting principles, but outright shuns them. So the potential was always there...but the circumstances of the day ends up with the results that, yes, leftists are now more evil than they used to be.

Their mindset hasn't changed, but their environment has. Their mindset hasn't changed, but simply expanded to fill the space provided.