Lenin was created on October 31, 1918, by the Decree of the Department of Public Education of the Orel Provincial Committee and which was opened on November 5 of the same year and existed in Oryol until 1920.

The Council of People's Commissars on November 4, 1921, has adopted a decree to establish a Higher Pedagogical Institute on the basis of OSU.

On August 5, 1931, Industrial and Pedagogical Institute was founded in Oryol by the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian SFSR.

On November 20, 1943, by order of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR OSPI was re-evacuated to Yelets, and in August 1944 returned to Oryol.

On June 6 of the same year Educational and Research and Production Complex (UNPK) was created on the basis of Orel State Technical University.

Students of Key University take part in various international conferences, such as: In addition, Key higher educational institution itself becomes a venue for international conferences and seminars: The university is visited by foreign delegations from all over the world: France, United States, Iran, Vietnam, Armenia and others.

[2] OSU has 12 institutes and 13 faculties: According to the investigation by Dissernet the university has awarded numerous (>85) degrees based on heavily plagiarised theses.

[5] On April 18, 2011, An anticorruption body was formed at Oryol state university called Turgenev and it follows a professional code of ethics which was approved on 25 December 2014 in an effort to fight against corruption.