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Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky)
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Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: GUEST,MNJoe Date: 09 Apr 24 - 11:35 PM 10 years since my original query and have to say I still haven't found much else in the way of clues other than what folks have posted in this thread (thanks again). I'll take another dive and see what I can surface... |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: GUEST Date: 17 Jun 23 - 12:10 PM It's a joy to read this thread. Just to add another bit of data. We sang this song in the 1950's at Herzl Camp. To the person who sang this song at a camp in L.A. There is a possibly interesting coincidence. Zvi Dershowitz, out camp director in Minnesota went on to become a prominent rabbi in L.A. Part of our version of the song was "We work well together, no matter what the weather. When he says no and I say yes, one of us is right, I guess." |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: GeoffLawes Date: 24 Feb 23 - 06:49 PM I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKQjD25i0r4 |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: GUEST,Seth Robbins Date: 23 Feb 23 - 08:41 PM I have known a fairly different version to these most of my life. I grew up in mid-Westchester County, NY. This was a sort of bus-trip song in the late 60s and early 70s, as in on field trips or to events, and it was evidently just a fragment of the songs many of you have remembered. It would just go round and round the verse and be repeated. No Lenin, no Trotsky, no Russian diplomatsky Can stop us in our plotsky to overthrow the czar [yes, I know that doesn't make sense, I'm just reporting what I remember was sung] When comes the revolution, we will find solution And you will all see red Hey! Aye-yi-yi-yikus Nobody like us We are the ones from [insert town name] No Lenin, no Trotsky, no Russian diplomatsky... etc. So funny that a song that probably came out of some Workmen's Circle camp found itself sung as a suburban American school-spirit fight song, not even remembering which side was which. Don't shoot the messenger. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: GUEST,CLH Girl — 1977 through 1982 Date: 21 Jun 22 - 07:23 PM I remember this song as a favorite and was reminded of it today while visiting the Leon Trotsky Home here in CDMX — where he was exiled and eventually killed. We LOVED that song and surely it was written during The Cold War. My kids both went to camp — at CLH and CL — and the song was nowhere to be found in the recent repertoire. I’m DYING to know all the words to this quirky, fun and — certainly now — UNacceptable-in-our-current-PC-World song! |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: Stringsinger Date: 24 Apr 22 - 11:07 AM Then there's the old New York street rhymes probably coming from summer camps: "When I grow to old to fight, I'll become a Trotskyite, and when I grow to old to see, a Forwards reader I will be." (To read Forwards you'd have to read backwards) Trotsky was not a Bolshie, Stalin bumped him off. The return of McCarthyism is an unwelcome guest. I don't like my favorite Russian composer Rachmaninov to be censored. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: GUEST,Bob Date: 18 Apr 22 - 04:41 PM I thought it was "We're Len and Trotz, the diplomats". This song was banned from Camp Ajawah in the early '60s (?) by a fairly conservative dad, but someone who remembered it reintroduced it a few years later. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: GUEST,Karen Myers Date: 06 Sep 21 - 10:53 AM Like GUEST above, I also remember it from Camp Lake Hubert in northern Minnesota in the early-mid 60s. Sounds like vaudeville, to me. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: GUEST Date: 15 Aug 21 - 01:59 PM The "campus song" book that I saw the song in in Berkeley years ago supposedly came from Princeton University, and their library has a copy. Anybody in New Jersey who can look it up? |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: GUEST,Jeremy Date: 03 Feb 21 - 02:32 AM I believe it was summer Camp Pine Cone at Tannersville, NY in the 40s, where some counselors sang,
no Russian diplomotsky can stop of from out plotsky to overthrow the Tsar, Hey! |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: GUEST,MNJoe Date: 19 Sep 20 - 01:22 PM Thanks for your comments everyone. This gives me some leads to follow. Glad to see that over the years since I posted this that the song is known by at least a few people. And Guest who went to Camp Ajawah and then to Berkeley, it would be nice to connect. Are you still around these forums? |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: GUEST Date: 22 May 20 - 11:29 PM And I sang the song in the mid-seventies at Camp Lake Hubert for Girls in north-central Minnesota. I recently shared it with my son when he was taking an class on the Historical Perspectives of Russia in the Last Century at the University of Arizona. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: robomatic Date: 12 Apr 19 - 10:39 PM I grew up with a 60s album of songs covered from the original "Pins and Needles". A young Barbra Streisand sings "Nobody makes a pass at me." It was delightful. The closest song to the camp song here was a somewhat more sophistimicated number called "Four Little Angels of Peace" which had stanzas from Anthony Eden, Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo. The best song by far was a feaux Spiritual called "Mene Mene Tekel" which I mostly sing in the shower. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: GUEST,Ethan Signer Date: 10 Apr 19 - 11:20 AM from Camp Tabor, late 1940s:
Can you guess (3X) who we are |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: GUEST,D Web Date: 13 Feb 19 - 10:39 PM I learned the song at a Jewish summer day camp in Los Angeles, CA, in about 1962. A male counselor taught it to us and it was probably THE most popular song of the ones we often sang that summer. The lyrics were somewhat different than the ones elsewhere in this thread, but it's the same song: Can you guess (3x) who we are We come from afar from the land of the car Can you think (3x) who we can be We're Lenin-Trots, the Bolshevaks, we come from across the sea. I'm Lenin, he's Trotsky, the Russian diplomatskis We have overthrown the czar, now we are the conquerors, Hi-ho (3x) Weeeeee're the Russian diplomats! Hey, Russia-Pisha, Pussia-Pisha, hey, pell mell; hi-ho the derrio, the farmer in the dell. (The one additional verse was the "landed here at Ellis Isle" verse.) Thinking back on it as an adult, it has, as others have written here, a vaudeville or musical theatre feel to it...maybe from a revue in the '20s. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: Jim Carroll Date: 20 Dec 17 - 06:30 AM There are a whole bunch of these much neglected songs (To Volga Boatmen tune) When Serge and I were young we used to live in Omsk And there we spent our time making great big beautiful bomsk Then Serge and I grew up, we went to live in Tomsk And then we spent out time making many more big bomsk Then Serge and I were caught and exiled to Murmansk And there we spent our days our days hatching revolutionary Plansk But we shall not forget our revolutionary plotsk And we shall always love our herop, Comrade Trotsk-eeeee More of this I'm sure, and many more songs Jim Carroll |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: GUEST Date: 19 Dec 17 - 02:08 PM I went to camp Ajawah as a young Cub Scout, too, and I remember this song. I’ve wondered about it’s origin, too. I saw it in a book at a hootnanny, once, here in Berkeley, but I was too involved with some other aspect of playing music that evening to examine the book for further details about the song. (I think the book, which was hardbound, was a book of college “campus songs”, from the ‘40’s or early’50’s). Anyway, I bet it’s from a vaudeville show from back in the ninteen-teens, or maybe it was part of the New York musical from the early ‘40’s, “Needles and Pins”? |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: GUEST,Karen Krupnick Date: 31 Mar 17 - 03:44 PM I forgot about this post. I went to Surprise Lake for weekend trips in college. I guess there were red diaper kids in my generation whose,parents had sung these songs. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: GUEST Date: 29 Mar 17 - 03:22 PM Yes, I remember these words. When I was a girl in Minnesota, we sang a different tune from that on the video:
You have a meeting with the czar-ar-ar! We've traveled near and far-ar-ar! Hen Len, hey trot, we're the Russian diplomats Hey Peesha, pasha, posha, pusha, hell's bells, hey! |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: GUEST Date: 14 Jan 16 - 03:15 PM I sang "Can You Guess" in the mid 1940"s at Surprise Lake Camp in Cold Springs NY. I tried to find the origin and found your site. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: GUEST,Karen Krupnick Date: 24 Oct 15 - 09:44 PM i sang this at Girl Scout camp in New York. I also thought it must have come from a show, but could never find a source. What a strange song to have evolved as a camp song. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: GUEST,MN Joe Date: 29 Aug 14 - 11:29 PM Thanks, Joe, I'm surprised that link never showed up in my Google search. Ironically, the one comment on that page is from yet another Joe - and I know him, he's from my camp. The camp in the link is in the Poconos, far from Minnesota. So perhaps it's known and sung elsewhere as well. And you are sure right about camp song origins - the ones we sing range from centuries old rounds to top 40 hits to everything in between. I've tracked the origins of 90% - and mudcat has been an invaluable help. Thanks to all who have contributed their knowledge here! |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: Joe Offer Date: 25 Aug 14 - 01:25 AM Hi, Joe - Summer camp songs are a strange phenomenon. You learn a song that you're sure was written by some long-ago counselor at your camp, and years later you find out that ten different camps had versions of your song. Here's a link to at least one other camp that sang your song: http://camptanalo.com/remember-song/ |
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Subject: Origins: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) From: GUEST,MN Joe Date: 25 Aug 14 - 01:05 AM I went to a summer camp that has a vast repetoire, more than 200 songs. Most are track-downable, but a few are mysterious. One such is a satirical tune we call "The Russian Song." No one remembers where it came from, it's been sung for many decades. Internet searches have turned up nothing. I posted our version of the song on youtube this summer, so you can check that out (http://youtu.be/AKQjD25i0r4?list=UULOaceWi0PqyYnTpi56tBjA), or just see if the lyrics below ring a bell. Many thanks in advance to anyone who can shed any light on this fun song. A song of mysterious origins being sung by the girls of Camp Ajawah. It sounds like something from a 1930s Broadway musical comedy, but I can't find any information about it. You can see the clever wordplay in the lyrics: Russian Song (I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky) "Can you guess? Can you guess? Can you guess just who we are? We come from afar, from the land of the Czar. Can you think? Can you think? Can you think just who we might be? We're Lenin/Trots the diplomats, We come from 'cross the sea. I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky, the Russian diplomatski And when we overthrow the Czar, we'll be leaders near and far Hi ho, hi ho, I'm Lenin, I'm Trots, we're the Russian diplomats Chorus: So Russia, Preesha, Prussia, Preesha, We sail well, Hi ho the dairy-o, The farmer in the dell. Politics, politics, we are the Bolsheviks, We know all the tricks that go well with the hicks, We can speak for a week and our talk is never flat, Cause I'm a Republican! I'm A Democrat! We work well together whatever be the weather When I say no and I say yes, one of us is right I guess, Hi ho, hi ho, I'm Lenin, I'm Trots, we're the Russian diplomats Chorus We landed here on Ellis Isle, we only plan to stay a while After we've completed our show, back to Russia we must go. Hi ho, hi ho, I'm Lenin, I'm Trots, we're the Russian diplomats. Hey!" |
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