This is a really big and difficult question, as others and yourself have noted. For me, there’s two avenues that take me to two different answers.
On one hand, I’m incredibly inspired by Lenin, or more specifically, Stalin’s interpretation of Lenin’s works. Before I was Marxist-Leninist, I was Anarcho-Communist. I believed in idealistic theories for revolution and society, but reading Foundations of Leninism was an important spark of inspiration to reformat some of my beliefs to be more scientific. More realistic. More, well, plausible. Reading Lenin gave me the tools needed to change the book I’ve been working on for years to be more reality-based and more theory centric. Lenin’s ideals, with the interpretations of the many Bolsheviks and the many revolutionaries around the world, have reformed societies, they’ve built systems that worked for the proletariat, that alone is worth "great figure"ism.
On the other hand, I’m American, I’ve grown up in a place with a lot of racism and refusal to adhere to civil rights - I knew people when I was younger who directly suffered under Jim Crow long after MLK and Malcolm X brought equality. My town was one of many that ignored the civil rights act, only being forced to let African-Americans have equal rights by the national guard in the 1990’s. When I think about relevant socialism that matters in the United States, I think Huey, I think Hampton, I think Davis, I think about the liberation of black America. Specifically, listening to speeches given my Hampton did a lot to open my mind to a world that I grew up around but never considered. A world that many whites like myself never truly acknowledge. A world I have the racial privilege to not endure, but once spoken, becomes impossible to ignore. Hampton gave me, from beyond his grave, the power to look at myself not as a white communist, but as a revolutionary in the struggle for the liberation of all races under A banner of the people; the red banner of Socialism. I am a revolutionary!
This is a really big and difficult question, as others and yourself have noted. For me, there’s two avenues that take me to two different answers.
On one hand, I’m incredibly inspired by Lenin, or more specifically, Stalin’s interpretation of Lenin’s works. Before I was Marxist-Leninist, I was Anarcho-Communist. I believed in idealistic theories for revolution and society, but reading Foundations of Leninism was an important spark of inspiration to reformat some of my beliefs to be more scientific. More realistic. More, well, plausible. Reading Lenin gave me the tools needed to change the book I’ve been working on for years to be more reality-based and more theory centric. Lenin’s ideals, with the interpretations of the many Bolsheviks and the many revolutionaries around the world, have reformed societies, they’ve built systems that worked for the proletariat, that alone is worth "great figure"ism.
On the other hand, I’m American, I’ve grown up in a place with a lot of racism and refusal to adhere to civil rights - I knew people when I was younger who directly suffered under Jim Crow long after MLK and Malcolm X brought equality. My town was one of many that ignored the civil rights act, only being forced to let African-Americans have equal rights by the national guard in the 1990’s. When I think about relevant socialism that matters in the United States, I think Huey, I think Hampton, I think Davis, I think about the liberation of black America. Specifically, listening to speeches given my Hampton did a lot to open my mind to a world that I grew up around but never considered. A world that many whites like myself never truly acknowledge. A world I have the racial privilege to not endure, but once spoken, becomes impossible to ignore. Hampton gave me, from beyond his grave, the power to look at myself not as a white communist, but as a revolutionary in the struggle for the liberation of all races under A banner of the people; the red banner of Socialism. I am a revolutionary!
[edit; typo]