After Kirov's assassination, he acquired a reputation for having repeatedly stood up to Stalin in private, and of becoming so popular that he was a threat to Stalin's supremacy. He did display some independence from Stalin. Reputedly, in 1932, Stalin wanted to have Martemyan Ryutin executed for writing an attack on his leadership, but talked out of it by Kirov and Sergo Ordzhonikidze. Alexander Orlov, who defected to the west, listed a series of incidents in which Kirov allegedly clashed with Stalin, based on rumours he must have heard from fellow NKVD officers. Kirov's reputed rivalry is a major theme of the historical novel "Children of the Arbat", by Anatoli Rybakov, who wrote: