"Are you saying that Mao and Stalin were NOT Leftists? "
Name only... I don't recall any sort of workers' collectives making their own decision. I don't recall anything but an enforced caricature of "communism". They were totalitarians, which is anathema to what Marx suggested.
Tito's Yugoslavia was somewhat leftist, and obviously Israel early on, but communism as such hasn't been tried except on a very small scale here and there.
Democratic Socialism on the other hand, is very successful where it's been implemented. I don't recall for instance, any country with public health care systems voting to get rid of them. Perhaps you do?