The article sets out to reconstruct the famous comment made by a Soviet intellectual Vladimir Turbin with regard to the cultural space of the city of Yelets. The literary critic’s reference to an ‘enchanted city,’ which appeared in the Ogonyok magazine aſter his trip to Yelets in 1967, had far-reaching consequences for the people of Yelets; it equipped them with an idea that became foundational for the city’s urban identity in the era of Russia’s democratisation. In the early 1990s, Turbin’s comment was quoted by the city’s intellectuals and rulers, who used the high praise of the city to achieve political legitimacy. Commemoration of Turbin becomes integrated into the city’s politics of memory, as illustrated by a few specific incidents. At the same time, the history of the comment that defines the place of Yelets in Russian culture remains largely unexplained. The author hypothesises about the reasons for Turbin’s fascination with Yelets. Along with connections to Rozanov and Bunin, it is likely that Yelets appealed to Turbin as an opportunity to expand the geography of his guest seminars, as well as to research his own ancestry.