You are right that Rand’s “philosophy” was a reaction to her upbringing in the Soviet Union. I don’t think we are selfish agents, research in anthropology and primatology indicates that we are a mix of self-centered and cooperative animals, as evolution made us. That’s why I don’t think that a completely communitarian philosophy (like communism) would ever work, but also why a completely self-centered one (like Objectivism) will either.