Dmitri Parsky

{{Infobox military person

| name = Dmitri Pavlovich Parsky

| image = Dmitry Parsky.jpg

| image_size = 200px

| birth_date = {{OldStyleDate|29 October|1866|17 October}}

| death_date = {{death date and age|1921|12|20|1866|10|29|df=y}}

| birth_place = Tula Governorate, Russian Empire

| death_place = Moscow, Russian SSR

| allegiance = {{flag|Russian Empire|1914}}
{{flag|Russian SFSR|1918}}

| branch = 20px Imperial Russian Army
20px Red Army

| serviceyears = 1884–1921

| rank =

| unit =

| commands = 12th Army
3rd Army
Northern Front

| battles = Russo-Japanese War
World War I
Russian Civil War

| awards =

| relations =

| laterwork =

}}

Dmitri Pavlovich Parsky ({{langx|ru|Дми́трий Па́влович Па́рский}}; {{OldStyleDate|29 October|1866|17 October}} – 20 December 1921) was an Imperial Russian Army general during World War I, who fought on the Eastern Front.

Life

Parsky was born to the family of Pavel Parsky and Natalya Ladyzhenskaya, nobles from the Epifansky district of the Tula Governorate.{{Cite web |date=2023-03-30 |title=Дмитрий Павлович Парский р. 17 октябрь 1866 ум. 20 декабрь 1921 — Родовод |url=https://ru.rodovid.org/wk/%D0%97%D0%B0%D0%BF%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%8C:897739 |access-date=2024-07-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230330230100/https://ru.rodovid.org/wk/%D0%97%D0%B0%D0%BF%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%8C:897739 |archive-date=2023-03-30 }} In 1893 he attended the General Staff Academy.

He was among early generals advocating military reform following the disastrous Russo-Japanese War. He advocated for better education for officers, equal and fair pay, and better prospects for promotion. He advocated soldiers be treated as individuals and their rights under the law be enforced by unit commanders, and a promotion system based on merit.{{Cite book |last=Reese |first=Roger R. |title=The Imperial Russian Army in peace, war, and revolution, 1856-1917 |date=2019 |publisher=University Press of Kansas |isbn=978-0-7006-2860-5 |series=Modern war studies |location=Lawrence, Kansas |page=259}}

During World War I, he commanded the 12th Army from 20 July to 9 September 1917 and the 3rd Army from 9 September 1917 to 8 November 1917.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YlgyDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA205|author=Prit Buttar|title=The Splintered Empires: The Eastern Front 1917–21|publisher=Osprey Publishing|year=2017|page=205|isbn=9781472819857}}

He was the first battle-experienced Tsarist General to offer his services to the Red Army,From Tsarist General to Red Army Commander by Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich, translated by Vladimir Vezey, Progress Publishers, 1966 explaining his viewpoint thus:

:"I am far from this Bolshevism you preach. But I am ready to work honourably not only with them, but with anyone, even the Devil and his disciples, if only to save Russia from German slavery."The Russian Civil War by Evan Mawdsley, p 83.

During the Russian Civil War, he first was commander of the Narva Front and later of the entire Northern Front.

He died of typhus in 1921 and is buried at the Vagankovo Cemetery.Некролог // Известия (газета). — 22 декабря 1921, № 288. — с. 3.