Mortality rates in the USSR and PRC went so far down once Socialism was implemented that life expectancy doubled, and nearly doubled in the case of Cuba. Communism was horrible to the previous ruling class, but for the vast majority of people is marked by massive improvements in key metrics like literacy rates, housing rates, lower poverty rates, and life expectancy. These countries did not get worse with Socialism, they were hellish beforehand and it was the Communists that ceaselessly worked to fix their broken countries.