The beginnings of pioneer discipline: the abolition and restoration of punishments in Soviet school

System of disciplinary action involving children’s collective is a widely recognized characteristic feature of Soviet school pedagogy. A common form in which a disciplinary pressure was channeled through the children’s collective was work with academically unsuccessful and misbehaving children by young pioneers and komsomol. In this paper the historical conditions that enabled the formation of this system are discussed. I argue that the prohibition of school punishments in 1918 in the social and cultural context of 1920s led to the development and further institutionalization of the mechanisms for delegating the disciplinary functions to children’s collectives.