It's just a question of semantics. For communists, socialism is just a necessary phase on the way to communism, and communist claim that communism is the highes

It's just a question of semantics. For communists, socialism is just a necessary phase on the way to communism, and communist claim that communism is the highest possible model as "everybody would receive what they need". The people living in the so-called Socialist Republics would disagree, especially those whose property was seized by the government - and the rest who had limited property rights. When people nowadays talk about socialism, they might mean something like the Nordic Model although these countries are not really socialist. The actual socialism in Eastern Europe was gloomy and the countries that manage to escape it are grateful it's ended and are growing fast.