setback, Ordzhonikidze was recognized for his efforts at the NKTP with the Order of Lenin and Order of Red Banner of Labour. Purges and downfall From the beginning of Ordzhonikidze's time as the head of Vesenkha and then the NKTP, there had been efforts to remove so-called wreckers and saboteurs from positions of influence. Ordzhonikidze had long tried to protect those working under him, a characteristic he retained throughout his time in Rabkrin, Vesenkha, and the NKTP. This policy was tested throughout the 1930s, as those close to Ordzhonikidze were purged from their positions, forced out as they were perceived to challenge Stalin's authority. This led to friction between Ordzhonikidze and Stalin. Ordzhonikidze argued against police interference in factory affairs, and was successful enough in this to have the Politburo agree to ban prosecutors from investigating factories or even entering them, a policy that Stalin would later regret approving. Lominadze and Pyatakov Early in Ordzhonikidze's tenure at the NKTP he witnessed the purging of Vissarion Lominadze. Lominadze, a fellow Georgian and an ally of Ordzhonikidze, had been expelled from the Party previously for his role in the Syrtsov-Lominadze Affair, where along with Sergei Syrtsov, he had been accused of "factionalism" in 1930, when the two had opposed collectivization of agriculture. After returning to Georgia, Lominadze was brought back into a leadership role by Ordzhonikidze, who helped him become the Party Secretary in Magnitogorsk. A wave of arrests of wreckers in January 1935 made Lominadze realize he would soon be targeted; to avoid this, he shot himself on 18 January, and died the next day. Though Stalin did not bring up the incident initially, in December 1936 he attacked Ordzhonikidze for having secretly corresponded with Lominadze before his suicide and then failing to disclose this to the Politburo. Stalin was also angry that Ordzhonikidze had been sending a pension to Lominadze's wife and son (who was named Sergo in his honour). Georgy Pyatakov, Ordzhonikidze's deputy at the NKTP, also found himself in trouble. Back in 1921, Ordzhonikidze and Pyatakov had been political enemies, but they soon resolved their differences and established a strong working relationship. Pyatakov followed Ordzhonikidze to Vesenkha in 1930 and remained his top deputy when it became the NKTP. As Khlevniuk notes, Ordzhonikidze valued Pyatakov for his "intelligence and organizational abilities" and "well understood ... that his own success as commissar of heavy industry owed much to his