Those general opinions suggesting a marked increase of the Jewish population’s influence and importance do not find confirmation in other sources.
In the October elections in Western Ukraine only 20 of the 1,495 elected delegates were Jewish (1.3 per cent) and in Lvov only 2 of 160. Equally small was the number of Jewish candidates elected on 15 December 1939 during the next elections to oblast, regional, and municipal delegate councils. The Lvov City Council had 21 Jewish delegates out of 519 (4 per cent), plus 252 Ukrainians, 121 Poles, and 27 people of other nationalities, that is, probably Russians. According to other sources,559 the number of elected Jewish delegates was 76 out of 476 (18 per cent). Among the Jewish councillors there were also vostochniks, for instance, Yakov Zaikin – administrative director of a Jewish theatre and earlier director of the Ossolineum Library,560 which was transformed into a branch of the Library of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. Among the councillors there were also famous actress Ida Kamińska561 and the Yiddish poet Rokhl Korn.562
Equally insignificant was the Jewish representation in the oblast and municipal administration. There were few long-time inhabitants of Lvov in that group. Only 23 locals held managerial positions in the municipal government, including 8 Jews. We will not find Jewish surnames among NKVD directors or commanders of the Workers and Peasants’ Militia. Particularly during the initial period of the occupation, the number of Jews was slightly larger in the people’s militia, which was initially (on 28 September) renamed Workers’ Guard by the Provisional Lvov Government and in December 1939 the Workers and Peasants’ Militia. The formation was purportedly commanded for a certain period of time by an officer Rejzman sent from the interior of the country. The number of Jews in managerial positions in the Soviet terror apparatus in other oblasts of Western Ukraine was equally small.
