Lately, I've been seeing a lot of people claim that the Soviet Union is bad, therefore everything done by the Soviet Union was done by communism, which means communism is bad.

by kash_ak

My question is, is communism exactly what the Soviet Union did, or is it different, and the Soviet Union didn't adopt Marxism correctly?

Another sub-question, could people be misconceiving Stalinism (i.e brutal totalitarian dictatorship) as communism instead of Marxism?

I_Provide_Feedback

While waiting on a more in-depth answer, here's a couple of relevant posts that may answer some of your questions:

Answer by /u/persevero on communism:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/hg0b9o/why_and_when_did_communism_became_synonymous_with/

And answer by u/nelliemcnervous on Stalin:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/hi5hvd/did_stalin_believe_in_communism_or_was_it_just_a/

Looking through the FAQ on the USSR might also be helpfulhttps://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/ussr#wiki_russia_and_the_soviet_union