They didn’t all die. I haven’t found a denominator in English sources and my Russian researcher has been busy, but my very rough guess is that <1/2 of the staff died. That seems plausibly the outcome of the correct process to me- you start out with a zero-tolerance policy because it’s easier to hold to (and because the highest-metabolism people will die first), but if you get close to having too few staff to protect the seeds, ration them out.
My understanding is that the seeds made it through the siege fine, although a good chunk were lost to ensuing neglect of the institute, so the deaths don’t seem to have hurt the goal.
They didn’t all die. I haven’t found a denominator in English sources and my Russian researcher has been busy, but my very rough guess is that <1/2 of the staff died. That seems plausibly the outcome of the correct process to me- you start out with a zero-tolerance policy because it’s easier to hold to (and because the highest-metabolism people will die first), but if you get close to having too few staff to protect the seeds, ration them out.
My understanding is that the seeds made it through the siege fine, although a good chunk were lost to ensuing neglect of the institute, so the deaths don’t seem to have hurt the goal.