Pol Pot was a genuine communist. The Khmer Rouge (real name: The Communist Party of Kampuchea) were also convinced they were ‘true’ communists in a very literal sense. In their official documents and speeches, the Party consistently pushed the line that they were ‘true’ Marxist-Leninists and that they would achieve a ‘super great leap forward’ towards their communist utopia faster and better than the USSR or The People’s Republic of China.
To do this, the CPK effectively turned Cambodia into a giant forced labour camp and abolished currency, education, capitalism and religion (among many other things). The entire population of the country was collectivised and all major urban centres were emptied, the people sent out to toil in the fields and live in strictly controlled communes.
The point is, the CPK were utterly convinced that by any measure they were implementing ‘real’ communism. This comes through, repeatedly, in reading the history of the Party and the people who controlled it.