What is your opinion on Communism?

I don’t know who said this, but I remember; communism is like spandex. It’s a bright idea at first, but it gets ugly once people start using it.
That’s not my opinion, as I’ve never lived in a communist country it’s hard to say, and I don’t think there are too many people here who have experienced it firsthand. But still, what is your opinion of it? Is it good? Does it work, or not?

Russia ditched the system, and I’m not sure but aren’t they the ones who came up with it? Countries that have this seem to experience a lot of poverty, so how good can it be? And there is poverty everywhere, so can communism be blamed for it, in the places where it’s present? I don’t know much about it, care to enlighten?