Are/were Russia and China really communist?

[Travis Retriever]

This has been bothering me for a while. Judgin from what I learned in school, all those many years ago, I never was under the impression that neither Russia nor China really changed their system and mererly switched out names- The Czar became the Premier, the Emperor the Chairman. The system still seemed just as oppresive before and after the implied change. So am I under a wrong impression here or am I just missing some pieces of information here?

I can't speak for China, but as for Russia, it was made worse, according to Ruwart in Healing Our World.
They went from being the biggest exporter of food to the biggest importer because of communism for example.

[AHPMB]

Yes it was because of the collectivist farm movement.  Stalin was telling everyone that it would vastly increase food production, but in actuality it led to the starvation of millions of people.  He basically stripped farmers of their possessions, and forced them to move onto massive plantation farms where they were supposed to forget about little things like subsistence and instead work for the glory of the system.  This was after Stalin purged thousands of Kulaks (farmers who were wealthy enough to be able to support themselves and sell crops on the market) just for being a threat to the system.  Thousands more were shot or sent to the Gulag for the crime of sneaking into fields and taking grain snippings just to try and feed their families.  It is one of the worst crimes against humanity in history, yet one of the least talked about.  It's a mystery to me as to why that is.

[Gumba Masta]

Well, it could be that we're all supposed to be buddy, buddy with the russians now, thanks to their gas reserves which they don't have many qualms about cutting off if you get uppity. Which they can do thanks to the little fact of being a nuclear superpower. At least that's how I understand it.