Value-form
The Western Left academics are nowadays very happy to talk about "varieties of capitalism", but talking about "varieties of socialism" remains almost an absolute "no-no". Most Marxists continue to believe in "only one" (Marxian) socialism: either that, or nothing at all. "Either" a society or movement conforms to the true concept of socialism, "or" it does not; and if it does not, it "cannot be" socialism. However, precisely "because" there are many different Marxist beliefs about socialism, Marxists cannot agree among themselves whether Soviet-type societies were socialist, capitalist, or something else. Some countries meet with the moral expectations which Marxists have, and others do not.Originally Marx and Engels themselves had heckled the advocates of "true socialism", but later Friedrich Engels and Karl Kautsky promoted Marxist socialism as the one and true "scientific socialism" within the Socialist International. When he was 43 years old, Lenin stated: "The Marxist doctrine is omnipotent because it is true". Lenin's Communist International (a deliberate split with the social democrats) adopted Marxist socialism as its official political doctrine.
Bourgeois socialism
"Conservative" or "bourgeois socialism" was a term used by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in various pieces, including in "The Communist Manifesto". The Marxian view is such that the bourgeois socialist is the sustainer of the current state of bourgeois class relations. Opinions vary as to whether this or that bourgeois socialist intentionally is excusing the current order, but the common thread is that they are in objective fact preserving it. Rather than abolishing class divisions, they wish to simply raise everyone up to be a member of the bourgeoisie to allow everyone the ability to endlessly accumulate capital without a working class. In "The Communist Manifesto", Marx and Engels use philanthropists, monks ("temperance fanatics") and reformers as examples of this type of socialist that they saw as opposed to their own aims. In expressing its views on the subject, Marx explicitly referenced Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's "The Philosophy of Misery", stating the following about bourgeois socialism: