Kalashnikov Concern has announced that the National Guard of the Russian Federation (aka Rosgvardiya) has adopted two versions of the Lebedev pistol – MPL and MPL1. According to Dmitry Tarasov, the CEO of Kalashnikov Concern, test samples of the pistols are already issued to Rosgvardiya units for field testing. Earlier, in February of the current year, it was announced that these pistols had successfully passed the government trials and were recommended for adoption. At the time of writing this article, it is unknown how many pistols Rosgvardiya is planning to order.

Lebedev Pistols @ TFB:

• Kalashnikov Unveils New PL-14 Pistol For Russian Army
• [ARMY 2017] Kalashnikov Concern Handgun Releases Compact PL-15, New Prototypes
• Russian PL-15K Pistol Described by the Designer (VIDEO)
• An inside look at the history of Russian Lebedev PL-14/15 pistol
• Kalashnikov Concern Releases the Competition Version of Lebedev Pistol Called SP1

The MPL pistol.

Designed by Dmitri Lebedev in 2014, the first version of this pistol, the PL-14, was introduced at the ARMY-2015 exhibition. Later, an improved version of the pistol called PL-15 and its compact sibling (PL-15K) were announced. The latest iterations of the full-size Lebedev pistol which are tailored to the requirements of Rosgvardiya are the MPL and MPL1. MPL (МПЛ) stands for Modulniy Pistolet Lebedeva (Модульный Пистолет Лебедева) which means Lebedev Modular Pistol. The MPL1 is apparently a suppressor-ready MPL featuring a longer (5″ vs 4.4″) threaded barrel and suppressor height sights. The latest edition of the compact Lebedev pistol is called PLK and there is also a competition model called SP1.

The MPL1 pistol.

The MPL and MPL1 pistols are chambered in 9x19mm and fed from 16 round magazines. These are locked breech pistols with a tilting barrel lockup of the action. The ambidextrous controls consist of a push-button magazine release, manual safety and slide release lever. The overall length of the MPL pistol is 205mm (8.07″) and it weighs 0.8 kg (about 28 oz). With the standard-issue suppressor attached, the length of the MPL1 pistol is 400mm (15.75″) and it weighs in at 1.15 kg (a little over 40 oz).

To learn more about the early development of these pistols, read Vladimir Onokoy’s article titled “An inside look at the history of Russian Lebedev PL-14/15 pistol“.

Pictures by Kalashnikov Media, www.kalashnikov.media