埃里克·霍布斯鲍姆的苏联观受到历史情境、个人情感、适世实用、史家自觉多因素的影响。20世纪30年代，自由资本主义与苏联共产主义之间的政治经济与文化对比，令包括霍布斯鲍姆在内的大量知识分子转向共产主义，催生了对苏联作为进步与解放象征的认同；人民阵线时代及战后十年，霍布斯鲍姆在情感与实用、政治与学术统一的基础上，将共产主义信仰与作为榜样的苏联、解放者斯大林相联系；1956年后，霍布斯鲍姆仍肯定苏联在平衡美国霸权、维持国际秩序、推动民族解放上的特定作用；苏联解体后，霍布斯鲍姆以《极端的年代》正式书写苏联历史，对十月革命下阶段性定论，赋予十月革命以历史合理性，辩证看“现实中的社会主义”，历史地观照斯大林主义，最后从中短时段考察苏联崩溃与解体的原因，体现出其一贯的历史逻辑与人文关怀并行不悖的风格。

Eric Hobsbawm's view of the Soviet Union has been influenced by the historical milieu, emotional attachments, pragmatic politics and historian consciousness. In the 1930s, The political, economic and cultural contrast between liberal capitalism and Soviet communism, turned a lot of intellectuals, including Hobsbawm, to communism, giving birth to the recognition of the Soviet Union as a symbol of progress and liberation; During the Popular Front era and the decade after the war, basing on the unity of emotional and pragmatic, political and academic, Hobsbawm linked the communist faith with the Soviet Union and liberator Stalin; After 1956, Hobsbawm still affirmed the Soviet Union's specific role in balancing the United States, maintaining the international order and promoting national liberation; After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Hobsbawm formally wrote Soviet history with The Age of the Extremes, where he made a stage conclusion of the Russian Revolution, looked at Stalinism dialectically and examined the reasons for the collapse and disintegration of the Soviet Union, reflecting his consistent parallel style of the historical logic and humanistic solicitude.