"Though a princess by birth, Helen was an anarchist by inclination," says Professor Emeritus of Russian Thompson Bradley, who shared an office with her in Parrish Annex. "With Helen, anything went. As a child, our second daughter thought she was god in her rocking chair in the sky."

Shatagin was born to an aristocratic St. Petersburg family. During the Revolution, she and her army officer husband were separated from her parents, infant daughter, and three younger siblings. After arduous stays in Gallipoli and Constantinople [Istanbul], the couple eventually made it to Ellis Island in 1923 on Nansen passports [identity cards issued by the League of Nations to stateless refugees]. They did not see their daughter again until 1931, when the Soviet government allowed only her mother and daughter to emigrate. Her family that remained suffered a long series of hardships, including imprisonment, and all died in the years leading up to World War II.

During the Depression, Shatagin held a series of jobs in New York; after her stint at the Nabisco cookie factory, she always spoke English with a noticeable Brooklyn accent. She also read tea leaves to make extra money and once foretold a gangster’s death. With that she became famous—among gangsters; they’d come to only her.

Shatagin came to Swarthmore the year after her husband died. Her home quickly became the Russian House, and she would often invite students to live there and follow a strict regimen during the academic year. She retired in 1973 and died five years later at 79.

"It was considered an honor among the Russian students to be invited to board with her," Bradley says. "Of course, she’d read their tea leaves."

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