Traditionally, the reign of Ivan IV “the Terrible” is seen in the Russian historiography as an era of deep reforms, including the currency, the police and the justice system. This article points to the limitations of such a view, based on an anachronistic understanding of “reform” as a conscious, planned, and well-considered effort. Sources rather reveal a host of local and temporary measures aiming at restoring the traditional order. From the study of the dynamics of those decisions, the role of the czar and the other political actors, and the conditions of local experimentations, a new image of 16th-century Russia emerges: that of a political system based on the practice of “corrections according to tradition.”