Russians Are Rushing the Prussians, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Russians are rushing the Prussians, The Prussians are crushing the Russians, Rasputin's disputin' and Italy's hootin', The Balkans are balking, Turkey is squawking, But God I am thanking the Yanks started yanking And yanked Kaiser Bill up a tree"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: war wordplay
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 188, "The Russians are rushing the Prussians" (1 text)
Roud #25458
NOTES [182 words]: This is such a tissue of anachronisms that I find it hard to imagine when it was written.
-- World War I in the east began in 1914 with the Russians invading Germany (Prussia in particular), with the Germans heavily defeating the Russians at the Battle of Tannenberg in late August. Russia didn't have much offensive luck thereafter until the Brusilov Offensive of 1916 -- which, however, was directed mostly against the Habsburgs, not Germany. The Germans had to help out the Austrians, though, and the Russian offensive finally failed -- and Russia collapsed in 1917
-- Rasputin was murdered near the end of 1916
-- Italy, originally allied with Germany and the Habsburgs, stayed neutral in 1914 and joined the Entente side in 1915
-- Turkey at this time did not exist; it was the Ottoman Empire until after the war (but it joined the German side in 1914)
-- There was always fighting in the Balkans, with the war starting with Austria-Hungary invading Serbia
-- The Americans joined the war in 1917
Thus there was no time when the Rasputin was alive and the Americans were in the war. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC188B

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