Here's the thing, Marx was perceptive about economics, not politics. That's why he got it so wrong about the politics. Then he tried to make it work, but all that really happened, ever, is that totalitarians used his words to fool people into letting them take control. There have never been nations that have been truly either socialist or communist, they just called themselves that. Compare/contrast Hitler and Stalin...

Is China communist? Not if you follow the conceptions of Marx and Engel. The "sin" that Marx preached against was a minority with control of the means of production suppressing the masses. Every so-called "communist" nation in the world has exceeded the depredations of every capitalist nation on that score, they merely substituted one group of oppressors with themselves. I'm happy to consider any counter examples anyone might suggest. I'll wait...

Then again, show me a "conservative" who is truly conservative.