In Bessarabia and Transnistria, two neighboring border regions on the fringes of Romania and the USSR, primary school teachers used corporal punishment in the interwar period to maintain discipline. Despite a ban, the Romanian Ministry of Education failed to prevent the use of corporal punishment in schools. The Soviet authorities classified corporal punishment as a counterrevolutionary manifestation and punished it accordingly. The difference in the application of school discipline in the two peripheral regions corresponded to the model of state formation, the ideological significance of the child, and the mission assigned to the school in Romania and the USSR. Despite these differences, state authorities and school actors in both regions contributed to the rationalization and codification of school discipline. Discipline centred on the unconditional authority of the adult was gradually replaced by a “conscious discipline” that was to be internalized by pupils.