The Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), known in the west as the the German Democratic Republic (GDR), or simply East Germany was a fairly late adopter of the Kalisnikov  design. In 1958 the Weisa Factory (VEB Gerate-Und Werkzeugbau Weisa) began development of the MPi-K, the DDR version of a Soviet AK. MPi-K was, weirdly enough, the abbreviation for Machinenpistole Kalashnikov, or Machine Pistol -Kalishnikov. Any automatic weapon that was not a full sized machine gun was classified as a machine pistol by the East German military.

The GDR version of the AK was very similar to a Russian Type-3 AK, but not all parts were interchangeable. The biggest differences, visually, were the unique stocks, that the rifles did not have a cleaning rod under the barrel, and that all metal parts were hot blued rather than coated or painted. 

The build quality of the MPi-K rifles was arguably the best of any manufacturer, but the bakelite stock parts tended to break down over time. As such, these parts, such as this lower hand guard, are increasingly rare.

This came to us in a box of Com-Bloc parts. According to the seller this stock was bought as a collectible in the 1990s through a mail order catalog back when these parts were more plentiful. Condition is excellent.