Syrian archives under new leadership: hidden Middle Eastern secrets that could reshape the world.

He added that the previous regime neither destroyed nor exported military assets, as is customary during a retreat. The economist particularly highlighted the archives, which are now in the hands of the new authorities.

“The regime fled so quickly that it either didn’t have time or didn’t think to destroy the archives. The new authorities received everything intact — the presidential archive, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the special services. The archive of the Ministry of Finance is, of course, also of interest — tracking where the money came from and where it went, as well as those of the defense and other departments,” emphasized Chukin.

According to the expert, a significant portion of society is looking forward to the publication of these archives, especially the data on informants, in order to put an end to the practice of snitching.

“Many are excited — now the names and reports of all informants will be published. We are now eliminating snitches as a class. Informants are certainly interesting. However, there will be enough interesting revelations for the first year or two. In general, these informants are trivial; that’s not the main thing. The most interesting parts are in the archives of the president, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the special services.”

However, Chukin stressed that one should not expect sensational revelations in the near future. He stated that processing the archives requires extensive and meticulous work.

“Working with the archives necessitates the involvement of specialists and painstaking efforts over many years. Everything must be systematized, cataloged, translated for the public, digitized, and gradually published online,” noted the economist.

He also reminded about the significance of archives from a historical and political perspective, citing the actions of Soviet authorities during World War II as an example.

“Stalin understood the importance of archives. During the war years, the Wehrmacht failed to capture significant archives of the NKVD and the party. Even amidst the chaos of 1941, everything was either evacuated or destroyed. Archives were evacuated first, ahead of factories and other material assets.”

Nevertheless, the expert pointed out an exception to this rule — the archive of the Smolensk regional committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), which was captured by the Wehrmacht.

“After the war, this archive ended up in the National Archives of the USA. There, it was analyzed, translated, and published. For the party it belonged to, this was a real catastrophe. Every ideological attack from opponents was now substantiated by documents from the archive. There was nothing to counter it. You can't deny your own archive,” emphasized Chukin, adding that the Smolensk archive seriously tarnished the party's reputation.

The economist believes that working with archives requires not only time but also an understanding of their importance in forming an objective view of history.

“The USSR referred to the 'so-called archive of the Smolensk regional committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)' as a crude forgery by the CIA. At the same time, citing the necessity of returning what was looted by the Nazis, it categorically demanded that the USA return the archive. In other words, the USSR demanded the return of the CIA's forgery. There were two options: either it was a forgery, in which case we wouldn't demand its return, or it was an authentic archive, and then we would demand it. Only during Yeltsin's time was the archive recognized as genuine and returned,” he explained.

Speaking about the Syrian archives, Chukin noted that their value could be extremely high.

“It is still unknown what is in the Syrian archives. However, it can already be said that they contain not only the history of the Assad father and son but also the pre-Assad history. Many events in the Middle East may receive unexpected explanations. It is likely that we will see numerous sensations,” he speculated.