WW1 Shovel MPL-50

Google says this is a Imperial Russian World War I (WWI) entrenching tool, also known as an entrenching shovel or e-tool. This specific type of entrenching tool is often referred to as an MPL-50, which stands for "Small Infantry Shovel". These tools were widely used by Russian soldiers during WWI for various purposes, including digging trenches, building fortifications. Many of these shovels, like the one pictured, were manufactured around 1915 and some were later reissued or repurposed, such as those used by the Finnish army or painted for the Deutsches Afrikakorps (DAK) in WWII MPL-50 The older man who owned it used it for many years backpacking with his mule.