Khioniya Kuzminichna Guseva (c. 1880/1 - After 1919) (her first name has alternatively been spelled as Khionia or Jina or Chionya and her surname has been alternatively spelled as Gusyeva; Russian: Хиония Кузьминична Гусева) was born ca. 1881 and was a townswoman (meshchanka) of Syzran', Simbirsk province. By 1914, she was 33 years old and living in Tsaritsyn, which is today Volgograd. She was a disciple of the monk Iliodor, during the reign of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.
She was lacking a nose[1] but, according to her own testimony, she never suffered from syphilis but was "damaged by medicines" since she was 13.[2][3]
According to the records of the Extraordinary Investigative Commission of the Provisional Government, Khioniya Guseva was a peasant of Syzran' district uyezd of Simbirsk guberniya. She attempted to assassinate the peasant Grigori Rasputin in his home village of Pokrovskoe selo, Tobol'sk province, on April 15/28, 1914 .[4] Other historians have dated the assassination attempt to June 28, 1914 (New Style).[5] According to the historian Oleg Platonov, the assassination attempt was made on June 29/July 12, 1914.[6]
Grigori Rasputin, friend of the Russian Royal Family, was visiting his wife and children in his hometown, Pokrovskoye, along the Tura River, in Siberia. He had either just received a telegram, or was just exiting church, when he was attacked by Guseva who drove a knife into his abdomen. Guseva purportedly screamed "I have killed the Antichrist!" after the attack. Still not dead, Rasputin was chased through the streets by Guseva in order to finish the task. He hit her in the face with a shaft, and a crowd quickly gathered chanting "Let's kill her!" She turned herself over to the constable and was placed on trial. She was found to be insane and was placed in an asylum until the February Revolution. After the February Revolution in 1917, she is reported to have failed another assassination attempt on Tikhon of Moscow in 1919.[7]
After several days, Rasputin recovered though he remained in intense pain until his death in another assassination plot two years later. His behaviour was greatly changed.
The exact dates of Khioniya Guseva's birth and death are unknown, but the police report indicates that she was 33 years old when she tried to assassinate Rasputin.[6]