Communism is an almost inherently anarchistic ideology. I'm curious as to how people like Stalin, or the other USSR styled "communist" governments justified their lack of anarchism or democratic systems.
In Marxism-Leninism, socialism appears after capitalism and before communism. In it, the state is a tool of the working class, and gradually becomes something that directs the economy scientifically and is not a tool of the classes (which are no longer at war with one another) At this point, it is no longer a state in the marxist sense, and is now communist.
The U.S.S.R, according to marxist-leninist theories, was not communist, it was socialist.
There is intense debate over whether or not Stalin actually followed the Marxist-Leninist ideology. It is not unlikely he was simply a cynical manipulator. The man was nothing if not inconsistent.