Modern production. This is a currently made piece in the tradition of the original; the history below is about the original.
The Russian small infantry spade, the MPL-50, is a short, all-steel-bladed entrenching tool of nineteenth-century design that became a weapon in the hands of Soviet special forces. About fifty centimeters long with a square-tipped blade sharpened on its edges, it was issued to every rifleman from the 1870s onward and carried through both World Wars. Spetsnaz units made close combat with the spade — striking, blocking and throwing it — a formal part of their training, and it has become one of the most recognizable pieces of Russian military kit.
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