text: wats capitalism .... communism ....marxism... ???   capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are mostly privately owned, and capital is invested in the production, distribution, and other trade of goods and services for profit in a market. these include factors of production such as land and other natural resources, labor and capital goods. various theories have tried to explain what capitalism is, to justify or critique the private ownership of capital, to explain the operation of markets, and to guide the application or elimination of government regulation of property and markets.  communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a future classless, stateless social organization, based upon common ownership of the means of production. it can be classified as a branch of the broader socialist movement. early forms of human social organization have been described as 'primitive communism' by marxists. however, communism as a political goal generally is a conjectured form of future social organization. there is a considerable variety of views among self-identified communists, including maoism, trotskyism, council communism, luxemburgism, anarchist communism, christian communism, and various currents of left communism, which are generally the more widespread varieties. however, various offshoots of the soviet (what critics call the 'stalinist') and maoist interpretations of marxism-leninism comprise a particular branch of communism that has the distinction of having been the primary driving force for communism in world politics during most of the 20th century. the competing branch of trotskyism has not had such a distinction. karl marx held that society could not be transformed from the capitalist mode of production to the communist mode of production all at once, but required a transitional period which marx described as the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. the communist society marx envisioned emerging from capitalism has never been implemented, and it remains theoretical; marx, in fact, commented very little on what communist society would actually look like. however, the term 'communism', especially when it is capitalized, is often used to refer to the political and economic regimes under communist parties that claimed to embody the dictatorship of the proletariat.  in the late 19th century, marxist theories motivated socialist parties across europe, although their policies later developed along the lines of "reforming" capitalism, rather than overthrowing it. the exception was the russian social democratic labour party. one branch of this party, commonly known as the bolsheviks and headed by vladimir lenin, succeeded in taking control of the country after the toppling of the provisional government in the russian revolution of 1917. in 1918, this party changed its name to the communist party, thus establishing the contemporary distinction between communism and other trends of socialism.