"The Russians Were Rushin', the Yanks Started Yankin" is a World War I song written by Carey Morgan and composed by Charles R. McCarron. The song was first published in 1918 by Broadway Music Corporation in New York City. The sheet music cover depicts an elderly man smoking a pipe with silhouetted soldiers across the top and bottom.
This song was reprinted at least twice and was recorded by Arthur Fields.
The sheet music can be found at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, and online through the Digital Collection of the University of Illinois at UrbanaâÂÂChampaign University Library.
The song is about a dream, set in the then-future year of 1953, where a veteran of World War I reflects on the year 1917 when various military troops defeated Wilhelm II of Germany. It turns out this was the dream of a school boy, day dreaming in class, who learns that Germany no longer exists because it was wiped out during World War I (a conflict which still had to end at the time this song was recorded).