In accordance with the Hoover Institution's dedication to the study of war, revolution and peace, the East European Collection is concerned primarily with the history, ideology, politics, and international relations of the various countries it encompasses.

The East European Collection emphasizes the history of its component countries beginning with the period of World War I, though some background material from the late nineteenth century is included. The collection has been systematically expanded in succeeding years. The largest part of the collection deals with nearly five decades of communist domination over the area, an era from which the region has just begun to recover. Many of the documents in this collection were and still are opened much before similar ones are being made available in the former communist countries.