Parskii, Dmitrii Pavlovich

Born Oct. 17 (29), 1866; died Dec. 20, 1921, in Moscow. Russian and Soviet military figure, lieutenant general (1915). Descendant of dvoriane (nobility or gentry) of Tula Province.

Parskii graduated from the Konstantin Military School in 1885 and from the Academy of the General Staff in 1893. He saw service in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, after which, as a progressively minded officer, he wrote an article in the press demonstrating the need for reforms in the army and in the country. He served at the Main Headquarters and in the Main Directorate of the General Staff. In World War I (1914–18), he commanded a brigade, a division, the Grenadier Corps from February 1916, the Twelfth Army from July 1917, and the Third Army from September 1917.

Parskii volunteered for the Red Army in February 1918 and directed the defense of Iamburg and Narva during the German intervention. He became the military leader of the northern sector of the zavesa (barrage) system in May 1918. Parskii was commander of the Northern Front from September to November 1918. He subsequently served as editor in chief of the Military Historical Commission on the Study and Application of the Experience of the War of 1914–18. He became a member of a commission for developing army regulations in June 1919 and a member of the commander in chiefs Special Conference in November 1919. Parskii wrote articles on the history of World War I in Voenno-istoricheskii sbornik (1919–20). He died of typhus.