Marxism is basically a system of analysis, and a way to view the world. Communism, on the other hand, is basically a political movement, a form of government, a condition of society. All "isms" are not created equal, some do indeed describe consciously created sets of ideas or ideology - for instance "Marxism" refers to the politics and philosophy deriving from the work of Karl Marx. A "Marxist" can be measured up to the ideas of Marx. Other examples of deliberately created ideologies include: Zionism, Fascism, Nazism, Postitivism. Communism in the west usually means the political application of the ideas of Karl Marx. Marxist socialism is, in theory, what was being practiced by all of the countries that we call "Communist". The objective of Marxist socialism is to use the State to prepare society for communism by communalizing all of the productive forces of the society, i.e. by making all of the means of production public property. The policies and procedures of the Soviet Union were not seen as policy of an "end result", but rather as part of a process. The policies of the Soviet Union were seen as steps in a plan to achieve an end result. According to basically all Communists, and to the leadership of the Soviet Union itself, that end result was never achieved. No country has ever had a communist system of government. The countries that we call "Communist" are countries where the dominant political party was the Communist Party. Communist Parties are generally political parties who have been working towards achieving "communism" as part of their party platform. The "state of communism" is described by Marx and Engels as the condition in which "the State" no longer exists and people live and work together in harmony in a society based on equality where the fruits of labor are shared with all members of society and no one is exploited. The Communist Party evolved out of The International Working Man's Association, which later became the Comintern, or Communist International. The Communist Party was the first truly international major political party. The goal of the Communists was ultimately to put an end to all exploitation, stop imperialism, bring working class people into political power all around the world, stop all war, and create a single unified global community where all people in the world were equal with equal rights in a global democratic society where everyone shared everything. http://www.rationalrevolution.net/war/communism_and_marxism.htm

W/o Marxism, there would have been NO Communism or Socialism as it is seen today at least.