The economic influence of Moscow was protected by the creation of the ""Sov-Rom" companies", which directed Romania's commercial exchanges to unprofitable markets (mainly the Soviet Union). Up until Stalin's death and even afterwards, Gheorghiu-Dej did not amend repressive policies (such as the works employing penal labor on the Danube-Black Sea Canal). On the orders of Gheorghiu-Dej Romania implemented also the massive forced collectivization of land in the rural areas. At the same time, he was the main instigator of the assassination of Ștefan Foriș in 1946, and the arrest of Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu in 1948, both of whom had been his rivals inside the Party's leadership. Gheorghiu-Dej was also responsible for purging other party colleagues like Ana Pauker and her allies in the Secretariat: Vasile Luca and Teohari Georgescu, who was scapegoated and blamed for many political and economical failures during his rule. The first five years of undisguised Communist rule in Romania saw a period of collective leadership, with fellow traveler Groza serving as prime minister. However, in 1952, Groza stepped down from the premiership and became chairman of the presidium of the Great National Assembly (de facto president). Gheorghiu-Dej succeeded him, becoming the first Communist to hold the post. He thus combined the two most powerful posts in Romania in his own hands, with full Soviet approval. Gheorghiu-Dej briefly gave up the first secretaryship of the Communist Party in 1954 to Gheorghe Apostol, retaining the premiership. However, he was still the actual leader of Romania, and he regained the party leadership in 1955, at the same time handing the premiership to Chivu Stoica. In 1961, he became president of the newly created State Council, making him "de jure" head of state. However, he had already been "de facto" head of state since 1947 by virtue of his leadership of the Communist Party. Gheorghiu-Dej was at first unsettled by Nikita Khrushchev's reforms in the new process of De-Stalinization. He then became the architect of Romania's semi-autonomous foreign and economic policy within the Warsaw Pact and the Comecon, in the late 1950s, notably by initiating the creation of a heavy industry in Romania which went against Soviet directions for the Eastern Bloc as a whole (e.g. the new large-scale steel plant in Galați, which relied on iron resources imported from India and Australia).