Ummmmm...you're right, I apologize. But then why were they always referred to as commies? Not being smart, just asking. Also, hasn't it always been said, the fall of communist Russia?
Either way, Socialism is the stage in Marxist-Leninist theory intermediate between Capitalism and Communism.
More labels than anything else, as I understand it, and that's been many years ago..
Actually, Russians were probably more communistic in practice than socialistic..
But Russia was a "Socialist Dictatorship", i.e., Stalinist, not strictly socialist.. Lenin and Stalin "hijacked" the worker's revolution..
The workers never got their shot at a socialist economy..
"From each according to ability to each according to need"... ( Economics = Socialism )
That would have required a greater involvement of the people in government.. Something Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky did not plan on happening.. ( At least Lenin and Stalin )
China, on the other hand, was strictly Marxist communism.. with Mao tse Tsung as the charismatic leader..
China still makes a great show of "the people's" representation in government, but even today chinese government tends to isolationism and government controlled indoctrination..
State policy is all.. the worker is nothing but a means to an end.. ( Communism = Political )
Others with more knowledge in this field may be able to explain it better..