What is the origin of the phrase "join the club/welcome to the club"?

I recently was having a conversation with an acquaintance in Russian, and she used the phrase "welcome to the club" as it would literally translate into Russian. Confused, I asked, "This is surely an Americanism", as the phrase was precisely the same, translated 100% literally word for word.

She was adamant that the phrase was not only completely normal in Russian, but that it wasn't even taken from the English language!

What research I've performed in Google has yielded nothing definitive beyond confirming the existence of the phrase (I likewise searched for information in Russian, coming to a similar dead end).

Is the origin of this phrase known? Can we at least isolate it to a specific country?

Thank you!

Not a definitive answer, but the Online Etymology Dictionary says:

Join the club "become one of a number of people having a common experience" is by 1944.

It doesn't say where it was used in 1944.

You have the expression “Welcome to the club and Join the club which have a “negative” connotation

The rest of us are in the same situation.

• So you’re short of cash? Welcome to the club. You’re just like us. Join the club; we’ve got jackets.

(McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs)

According to the OED, "join the club" in this sense was first used at least as far back as 1944:

Join the Cotton Club! [i.e. wear cotton dresses]
_Chatelaine

The OED also mentions another earlier expression that also uses "club" metaphorically. "In the pudding club" means pregnant, and dates back to at least 1890:

Pudding club (popular), a woman in the family way is said to be in the pudding club.
_{Dictionary of slang, jargon and cant}

The OED page for "club", however, has not been updated yet so I don't doubt that there may be earlier examples. I don't see any evidence for or against a Russian origin.