Dear Friends,--I am repeating to you an early Christmas gift I received from the National Security Archive: a declassified copy of the long Dissent Channel message I wrote in Moscow in early 1994. State refused several Freedom of Information Act requests from me and others, but somehow the NSA broke it loose, evidently after lengthy legal action. I did not even know they were interested, let alone engaged in this struggle, until NSA sent me the text in late October. They have been super in terms of bringing this text into the light of day, although I certainly do not expect much attention to it other than in academia. However, I pass it on to you if only in celebration of this small victory over the institutional bias against public exposure of policy formulation. I warn you that the Dissent message is very long (much too long); you might find it prudent to first read the accompanying essay the NSA asked me to produce explaining why the Dissent message came into existence. However, perhaps something to help pass a long winter’s night. Enjoy, Wayne
Begin forwarded message:From: National Security Archive <nsarchiv@gwu.edu>Subject: The Long Telegram of the 1990s:“Whose Russia Is It Anyway? Toward a Policy of Benign Respect”Date: December 18, 2024 at 11:53:44 AM ESTTo: Wayne Merry <wmerry@earthlink.net>Reply-To: nsarchiv@gwu.edu
The Long Telegram of the 1990s: “Whose Russia Is It Anyway? Toward a Policy of Benign Respect”
Embassy dissent argued against U.S. push for radical economic reform
Top political officer predicted U.S. focus on markets over democratic institution-building would turn Russia anti-American and “adversarial”
National Security Archive wins release of long-withheld cable through FOIA lawsuit
Washington, D.C., December 18, 2024 – A now-legendary but long-secret 70-paragraph telegram written by the top political analyst at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in March 1994, E. Wayne Merry, criticizing the American policy focus on radical economic reform in Russia, was published in full today for the first time by the National Security Archive.
Merry could not get the critical message cleared for government-wide distribution at the time in 1994 because of Treasury objections (“It would give Larry Summers a heart attack”) and ultimately resorted to the Dissent Channel instead, according to Merry’s retrospective commentary, which was also published today by the Archive together with the actual “long telegram” and other declassified documents.
Reminiscent of George Kennan’s Long Telegram of 1946 in the depth and scope of its analysis of Russian realities and almost as prescient in its prophecies, the Merry cable only reached the public domain as the result of a National Security Archive lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The State Department denied a copy to Merry himself, claiming public release of dissent messages would provide the wrong incentive for future Foreign Service Officers.
Titled provocatively “Whose Russia Is It Anyway? Toward a Policy of Benign Respect,” the Merry long telegram argued that radical market reform was the wrong economic prescription for Russia, with its history of statist direction of the economy, uncertainty of political transition and extreme challenges of geography and climate. The message described “shock therapy” as so visibly Washington’s program that the devastating austerity already evident in 1994 was blamed on the U.S., and the long-term consequences would “recreate an adversarial relationship between Russia and the West.” Plus, Merry warned, “we will also fail on the economic front.”
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