So, looking for the wildest claims from the middle of the cold war and trying to pass them off as fact?
If you look at the estimates the article actually uses:
By the end of 1940, the population of the Gulag camps amounted to 1.5 million.[13]
According to some estimates, the total population of the camps varied from 510,307 in 1934 to 1,727,970 in 1953.[4] According to other estimates, at the beginning of 1953 the total number of prisoners in prison camps was more than 2.4 million of which more than 465,000 were political prisoners.[22][23] Between the years 1934 to 1953, 20% to 40% of the Gulag population in each given year were released.[24][25]
Your number is several times higher than the highest estimate used outside of the historiography section (in case anyone reading is unfamiliar with the term, historiography is the study of how our understanding of history has changed over time, and so includes references to claims that have now been widely discredited).
The Count of Monte Cristo will always hold a special place in my heart because I read it as a kid and it was the first real “grown up book” I ever read, and it absolutely hooked me. I was reading it under the covers with a flashlight when I was supposed to be asleep. It has the vivid, detailed descriptions you find in the classics, but without slowing down the pace. There’s a bunch of different threads and subplots to follow, and I generally feel like most adaptations don’t do it justice, because it takes more than a movie or miniseries to tell the story - the one exception being Gankatsuo (as mentioned here already) which changes the setting but follows the story pretty faithfully, giving it a full season and starting midway through.
On top of the action, adventure, and schemes, it also has social commentary, philosophy, and interesting characters. The count occupies this unique position in the upper class in that he’s not old money and not tied to the aristocracy, but not exactly new money either, in that he’s not a merchant or capitalist. He’s just this free agent with his own agenda and values, and nobody knows what to make of him.
It’s fun, it’s very thought-provoking, and the imagery is striking. Big fan.
It’s a bit of a leap, but I think there’s some similarities with another one of my favorites, Crime and Punishment. In fact, looking back at what I wrote, “On top of the action, adventure, and schemes, it also has social commentary, philosophy, and interesting characters” is exactly on point for it too. It feels more modern that the era it was written, I’ve seen it described as a thriller and I think that fits.