Orel State University named after I.S. Turgenev is located in the ancient city of Orel, which was founded in 1566, and is now the center of Orel region. It is a comfortable city to live in, a calm city where every tenth resident is a student. A little over 308, 8 thousand people live in the city.

Orel is located in the European part of Russia, 368 km south-west of Moscow. It is connected with Moscow by a dynamic road, bus and rail service (it takes less than 4 hours to travel by high-speed train to Moscow).

There are two unnavigable rivers in the city: the Oka and the Orlik River, its tributary. Orel region is the environmentally friendly one.

The climate of the city is moderately continental. Winter is moderately cold. The periods of heat and relative coolness replace each other in summer. Autumn and spring are quite warm.

 The average cost of a food basket in Orel at the beginning of September 2020 was 11,575 rubles (about $ 162).

There are several theaters, cinemas, entertainment centers, many museums, libraries, sports facilities and monuments, houses of worship, a well-developed network of catering (cafes, restaurants and canteens), health care and educational institutions in the city.

Orel is considered to be one of the literary capitals of Russia (such Russian writers as I.S. Turgenev, I.A. Bunin, L.N. Andreev, A.A. Fet and others lived here).