It is more revolutionary in its effects than was Leninism. Leninism came to power in Russia on the back of the first world war, installing itself in the ruins of a war-destroyed Czarist system. Maoist Communism gained power by attaching itself to the outraged nationalism of the Chinese people. War and nationalism were the revolutionary forces. The globalization of unregulated capitalism ranks with them as a force in history, and in our common future.
Nuclear weapons are a detail.