Lenin wasn't only "inspired" by Marx, he wasn't even the first Russian socialist. Marxism was simply the framework that a lot of the socialist revolutionaries a

Lenin wasn't only "inspired" by Marx, he wasn't even the first Russian socialist. Marxism was simply the framework that a lot of the socialist revolutionaries at that time were operating in (including ones that Lenin ended up opposing later). Sure, given the economic and political realities of Russia at that time, something might have happened even if Marx hadn't existed, but it might have looked very different. Philosophy matters to the world because other people read philosophy and are inspired by it to change something about the world. The French Revolution, US independence, Latin American independence and so on were all undertaken in no small part by people who had read a lot and were trying to make some of their ideals reality.