Over the past ten years, Pavel Durov's life has changed dramatically. In 2006, the young man graduated from university, and away he went... “The best young entrepreneur”, the most popular social network in Russia and, as a result, a place in the ranking of the richest people in the country.
The success did not last long. Along with money came problems. The businessman left the post of general director of VKontakte and then left the country. A city of palaces and bridges, he replaced the sunny beaches of Indonesia and the mountains of Switzerland, the work of VKontakte with Telegram. It seems he even disowned his old colleagues.
The businessman also changed in appearance. Now in the tanned, muscular handsome man it is impossible to discern the “nerd” that Durov was so similar to in his youth. Let's compare photographs from 2007 and 2017: they look like two different people.
There are several questions. For example, where did the receding hairline go, excuse me? Are your ears sticking out anymore? Where did this piercing look come from? And the facial features are somehow chiseled...
“I DID OTOPLASTY”
It is possible that Durov became prettier in the Swiss mountains, from where he often posts photographs. Nature, fresh invigorating air... But, to be honest, it’s hard to believe in such an effect. Komsomolskaya Pravda discussed the dramatic changes in the billionaire’s appearance with the plastic surgeon of the SPIKA clinic, Valery Staisupov.
The changes are, of course, significant. But still, a lot of time has passed. There are several signs by which you can determine whether these people are different or not. Of course, Pavel Durov is in all the photographs,” says Staisupov. - True, in his youth he was more lop-eared than now. This is the first thing that catches your eye. There is an assumption that he nevertheless “conjured” his ears and had otoplasty (plastic surgery to correct the ears - editor's note).
“SHOULD HAVE BEEN HAIRLESS”
Another mystery is Durov’s luxurious hair. Even Keanu Reeves, whom the creator of VKontakte now resembles, has a much more modest hairstyle.
As for the other changes, there is no point in looking for a catch in them. Durov's face really sharpened, and his cheekbones became more expressive. But Valery Staisupov is sure that Pavel did without contouring. It’s just that nature took its toll. - Early photographs show that Pavel is beginning to experience androgenic alopecia. In theory, within 10-15 years he should have been left without hair. There are three options: hair transplant, wig or master work of stylists. The main thing is that everything is done with high quality. As a rule, men suffer from this baldness. And they fail to achieve such a brilliant result,” Staysupov is surprised.
He lost weight, dried out, and his cheekbones erupted. Previously, he had them at the same level as now,” the surgeon sums up. - Besides, Durov’s nose, eyebrows and eyelids are the same.
The same cannot be said about his abs and triceps. Obviously, Durov did not waste any time. And he demonstrated his inherent tenacity in the gym.
Thanks to the story of unsuccessful attempts to block the Telegram messenger, its founder and owner Pavel Durov managed to become a truly mythical figure in Russia. Still would. He managed to easily and gracefully resist the pressure of an entire state. He managed to make his messenger famous and competitive not only in Russia, but throughout the world.
But the most successful young Russian billionaire (net worth, according to Forbes, $1.7 billion) does not intend to stop there. News has appeared in the media that the brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov are developing the Telegram Open Network (TON) platform, which will become a kind of “Internet on the Internet” - a superstructure on the current Global Network, but it will not be possible to block access to it or hack it in the usual ways . This is a new virtual state, a step into the “matrix” and, apparently, the fulfillment of Pavel Durov’s cherished dream.
Virtual cemetery
Pavel Durov likes to present information about himself abstractly, in the format of maximalist statements. Thus, he formed a semi-mythical image of an ascetic billionaire and a convinced bachelor. He was born in Leningrad, his father Valery Semenovich, Doctor of Philology, headed the department of classical philology at St. Petersburg State University, where he still teaches. Pavel went to school in Turin, where his father was then at work. In his native St. Petersburg, he studied under an experimental program at an academic gymnasium, from which he graduated with honors. Afterwards he entered the philological department of St. Petersburg State University, majoring in English philology and translation. Pavel still hasn’t picked up his honors diploma from the university, and most of his fellow students recall that they “saw, but didn’t communicate,” “we studied in the same stream, but didn’t know each other personally.”
"I wait with hope and love,
As the rain pours...
Cheerful, summery, with blood..."
“Sun, warm, warm, warm.
Warm my chickens
So that the chickens, well done,
They carried boiled eggs.”
Still, it’s good that the founder of VKontakte abandoned poetry, which he was fond of during his student years. Although he himself called the poems “ironic” and, according to friends, treated them quite reverently, even publishing them in youth collections.
“He basically liked everything he did,” says Maxim Kashevarov, a university acquaintance of Durov, who also studied at the philology department, but a year younger. “I think it was this confidence that was one of the main components of his success.”
Who was Pavel Durov before he became the Russian Mark Zuckerberg?
Unlike his brother Nikolai, a technical genius, Pavel was more of a humanitarian - obviously, he would not have reached the heights of his brother-prodigy, so his parents decided to offer him another career, so as not to doom their youngest son to forever fade in the shadow of his elder. They could not even imagine that life would turn out completely differently.
Nevertheless, the second son was also very capable, philological disciplines were easy for Durov, he won competitions, received scholarships and eventually went to study at the philological department, which he graduated with honors.
It was the place and nature of his studies that became the starting point for further success. First, he opened the website durov.ru, which stored lecture notes, answers to tickets and other educational materials so necessary for a philologist. The success of this site prompted Durov to think about what he was going to do next. Then he opened a university student forum, and after that he was already fired up with the idea of creating social network.
However, his first business project was... a beauty contest at the faculty. He received as much as 100 thousand rubles from the dean’s office for its organization, and in addition attracted sponsors from well-known brands.
“Durov personally arranged the casting and selected girls to participate in the competition,” says Kashevarov. - The girls tried their best to please him, but Durov was cold and arrogant with them. He was generally skeptical about women - whether this was due to boyish arrogance, or complexes, it is not clear.”
Indeed, almost nothing is known about Durov’s personal life. “Nicotine and alcohol are among the most dangerous drugs. I banned advertising of cigarettes and booze on VKontakte. Love is also a drug. That’s why I don’t fall in love,” he said in one of his few interviews.
Whether this is true or not, we don’t know, but there is reason to believe that Durov had at least one serious relationship. According to some media reports, which supported their information with an extract from the registry office, Durov has two children with a former student of the history department of the same university, Daria Bondarenko. According to employees of one of the St. Petersburg publications that published this information, it is absolutely reliable. The registry office employees themselves provided classified information to journalists. It is worth noting that the department’s employees broke the law, perhaps some of them did it for a reward, but it cannot be ruled out that the information about the children was a banal “leak” in order to put pressure on Durov. Its publication strangely coincided with increased interest in the founder of VKontakte on the part of intelligence officers.
Pavel Durov (before plastic surgery) with his alleged wife Daria Bondarenko (left).
Durov himself categorically denies the fact of having children.
“They had an affair - that’s all I know,” says Kashevarov. - It lasted until the last year, and then I never met with them personally. I didn’t receive any information about the children from anyone else either.”
As one of VK’s former employees told MK, a colleague at his new place of work once said that she personally knew “the wife and children of Pavel Durov” and even sat with his little daughter. But we were unable to confirm this data.
Perhaps Durov is not lying about the taboo on falling in love, because, while still in a relationship with Bondarenko (if you believe Kashevarov’s words), on his birthday, which coincided with the anniversary of the founding of VKontakte, he threw a grandiose party and invited several dozen escort girls there. agencies And the author of the biographical book “The Durov Code,” Nikolai Kononov, wrote that, according to the recollections of friends, Pavel once did not speak to his girlfriend for two weeks for educational purposes. But it’s unknown whether Bondarenko was discussed or not.
Another story speaks about Durov’s cynicism, which is the dominant feature of his personality.
One day he became concerned about the problem of pages of deceased VKontakte users and even thought about creating a virtual cemetery. In this context, he told his colleagues a story that Durov himself found very funny: one of the VKontakte users was asked by the parents of his deceased girlfriend to remove the album in which he posted her erotic photo shoot. Instead, the man simply drew in pools of blood in Photoshop. They say that while recounting this, Durov had a lot of fun and lamented that the creator of the creepy collage might have to be banned.
“I wouldn’t say that he showed any pathological cruelty or coldness, it’s just one of his character traits,” says Kashevarov. “But who I think he really loves dearly is his brother.” I saw them together several times, but his special relationship was immediately apparent.”
Brother Cat
Who is Nikolai Durov? According to one version, he is a computer genius not adapted to external life, who, despite his outstanding abilities, could not achieve success; according to another, he is the one who is the true creator of VKontakte and whose laurels were appropriated by Pavel. In fact, neither one nor the other, or rather, there is only a grain of truth in both of these statements.
The Durov brothers were born into a family of St. Petersburg intellectuals, although their parents were never wealthy. What they were definitely lucky with was their two sons - Nikolai and Pavel.
From an early age, Nikolai began to demonstrate outstanding abilities and the eccentricity characteristic of geniuses. As he grew older, these qualities worsened - he made few friends and was not popular with girls.
Senior Durov is the “non-public” face of the digital empire.
According to eyewitnesses, once on one of his trips to hot countries he ate a plate of porridge with beetles in it. Those around him were so dumbfounded by this spectacle that they did not even dare to tell Nikolai about the presence of insects on his plate.
One of his few friends was VKontakte technical director Anton Rosenberg. The only public scandal in Nikolai Durov’s life is connected with him, and quite a loud one at that. Rosenberg accused his former comrade of molesting his wife Natalya.
“I remember his notebook with ideas and projects: in particular, there was a diagram of the nuclear reactor that he dreamed of building: with limiting rods, a cooling circuit and turbines to generate electricity,” Rosenberg recalls the elder Durov’s childhood hobbies. He also talks about Nikolai’s rather specific sense of self.
“On the St. Petersburg State University forum he had the nickname K.O.T., which later turned into the nickname Cat, which eventually replaced the name. Moreover, Kolya actually considers himself a cat, calls his mother a “big cat,” loves to meow on the street and in restaurants and encourages others to do the same,” notes Rosenberg.
According to him, no matter how much he asked about the reason for the appearance of such a nickname, Nikolai always avoided answering. “According to one version, the death of their cat Morpheus (Morpheus) had an impact; at least, questions at the ceiling, “Where is our Morpheus?..” during negotiations led people unfamiliar with him to great confusion,” says Rosenberg.
However, everyone got used to the eccentricities of the co-founder of VKontakte, since public representation and serious negotiations were mainly taken over by Pavel.
As for Nikolai’s participation in the project that made his brother a millionaire, he is really behind the technical component of VKontakte. When Pavel Durov saw Facebook, he immediately called his brother, who was studying in Germany at the time, and said that he needed to write software for its Russian counterpart. But the idea itself, as well as its further promotion, undoubtedly belong to Paul.
“Unfortunately, Nikolai Durov turned out to be not at all a sweet and quiet botanist genius. Now it seems to me that he was influenced by money and fame, coupled with a lack of understanding of ordinary human feelings. Looking back, I rethink the past, I remember his indifference to his colleagues, and his cynicism towards people, and his indifference to animals - even cats are not really interested in him at all, they are just a totem, a symbol,” he writes about Nikolai in his revealing text under title "Durov's Cat" Anton Rosenberg.
However, given the circumstances of their quarrel, one cannot be sure of the objectivity of either party. According to Rosenberg, Nikolai had long had his eye on his then girlfriend, now his wife, and began pestering her behind his back. Moreover, he did not abandon these attempts even after the public disclosure of the unpleasant story.
Childhood friends quarreled forever. And then Anton had to resign from VKontakte, which it is fair to call his brainchild too. At first, Pavel tried to gently put pressure on Rosenberg to leave the company of his own free will, and then fired him allegedly for absenteeism.
The only public scandal involving Nikolai Durov occurred due to falling in love with a friend’s wife, Katya Rosenberg.
“I was fired without even paying my debts, not to mention the bonus for last year" Offended former employee went to court with a claim for illegal dismissal. But he soon received a blow back: Durov’s company is also suing Rosenberg - “for disclosing trade secrets.” Moreover, he estimates his damage at 100 million rubles.
As a result, the lawsuit was withdrawn and the parties agreed to a settlement, and the scandal was gradually hushed up. Rosenberg did not push the conflict further and try to sue Durov for large compensation. What happened had already hit him hard, shaking his career and almost breaking his family, so Kot’s former friend decided not to risk what was left.
But it was from the window of Rosenberg’s office in the VKontakte office that Durov Jr. produced airplanes from five thousand dollar bills. People crowded downstairs, snatching money from each other, and even a small crush formed. And the initiator of the entertainment laughed and did not let up, throwing a total of 60 thousand rubles out the window.
“My monthly salary has flown away,” stated the programmer who observed this.
Durov's father does not have Internet
In the “house on Kamyshovaya Street”, described by Anton Rosenberg in Durov’s Cat, is the apartment of Pavel and Nikolai’s parents. An ordinary ten-story panel building near the final metro station in the north of St. Petersburg. There are new multi-storey “candles” all around; the buildings of the nineties with large courtyards look cozy and intimate against their background. Flower beds, playgrounds, yard football. In the front door, where the core of the future VKontakte once gathered, few people know “what kind of Durov he is,” and those who know are sure that he lives in Moscow, because “all these rallies take place there.”
The father of the Durov brothers lives in this St. Petersburg high-rise building.
Valery Semenovich Durov, the father of our hero, refused to talk: “You see, saying something will only cause harm. What can I tell you? We don't communicate with him. I don’t even have the Internet, I’m an elderly person. Yes, I haven’t seen him for a long time... Probably a year and a half.”
The neighbors, as it turned out, did not even know that this elderly intellectual was the father of “that same” Durov. “He walks around and says hello... What, does he have a famous son? If so, it’s strange that his dad lives here.”
“Durov’s Apartment” is another popular story among the Leader’s former employees. Most of them, of course, have never been there. And we are, of course, not talking about the family nest or even about Pavel’s apartment on Krestovsky, but about the “commune” of the developers of the social network, supposedly located in the center of St. Petersburg, not far from Singer’s house. According to ambiguous information from sources, the “elite”, that is, the developers, rented the apartment together.
However, it’s not easy to get into not only an apartment, but even the office of a social network. The VKontakte office is located in the famous Singer House on Nevsky Prospekt, on the ground floor of which is the House of Books. For a long time, the Telegram office was also registered there, but in January, after the scandal with Anton Rosenberg, the messenger moved out of the famous building, giving up the premises to VKontakte. Now, according to the building administration, it is impossible to get into the Singer dome. At the entrance, the guest is greeted by a security guard, even if you pretend that you are “for an interview,” the forgery will be immediately revealed over the phone. Directly upstairs, by the office, entry is by fingerprint only. "In principle the most effective way to get into the office is to seduce one of the employees who works there (and at Singer, let us remind you, there are only management), - a former employee of the social network shares his opinion. “We had a case where a person who was clearly “sick” about the topic of social networks seduced a girl in order to work on her behalf.”
Leader
“Pavel Durov is an odious figure. You see, everyone is passionate about him - they either admire him or hate him. In official work chats on VKontakte, employees called him either Pavel or Vozhd. That’s it, with a capital letter,” a former employee of the social network created by Durov told MK on condition of anonymity during a personal meeting. It’s amazing that even the Leader’s former employees are confident that their contacts and personal correspondence on social networks and Telegram can always be viewed by “whoever needs it.”
“This cannot be called unambiguous tyranny,” he continues. - After all, this was communication with the authorities, and in such formulations there was a share of pleasure in “leadership.” In the end, many shared this point of view. And Durov - that Durov... Well, he always walked around in his black robes. I don’t really like the fact that he was made into a saint in public, and a caricatured saint at that.”
He is echoed by another former social network employee: “At corporate events, for example, we didn’t have alcohol or meat, only seafood. At the same time, under Durov there was such a touch of elitism. Only the elite - developers - gathered for the first corporate events. And then once there was a corporate party “for everyone” in the Sheremetev Palace. And all the people who worked from home came, and not in Singer’s house (only the management sat there, everyone else was remote). And these incredibly delicious dishes didn’t particularly suit them...”
Traditionally, there were two corporate events on VKontakte - October 10 (the birthday of the project and Pavel Durov) and December 24 (the Leader considered New Year bourgeois relic and proposed to celebrate the winter solstice). And the popular photographer Alexander Mavrin always sat at a separate table. Mavrin is known for his erotic photographs, and at corporate events VK, together with his models, regally occupied a separate table. Neither Mavrin nor his 2011-2012 models responded to the MK correspondent’s invitations to talk about those glorious times.
“Why am I talking about a “caricatured saint,” our interlocutor continues. - Everyone remembers the story of how in 2012, on City Day, he threw airplanes made of five thousand dollar bills from the window of Singer’s house. And this is against the backdrop of his statements about asceticism. At that time, the salary of a support service employee, for example, was 20 thousand rubles, many did not understand his action.
There was also a story when groups with pornography were massively closed on social networks. Despite all the technical improvements, the main work was done manually: the entire community of many thousands was simply divided up by different people for work. And since this was all done at an accelerated pace, often at night, apparently due to lack of sleep, someone covered the group with the usual light erotica. The administrator was offended and wrote a post on his social network wall about this blatant injustice.
And then - I don’t know what it was, maybe Pavel himself liked to look through this group in his spare time - Durov personally came to him in a commentary and said that this was someone’s mistake. And then all the changes regarding groups with pornography were simply stupidly rolled back. Tens of hours of labor simply went nowhere, although there was not even a formal order, there was only a comment in the public field. In principle, any dispute between employees ended instantly if the argument “I didn’t come up with this, it was the Leader who said so” came up.
Keanu Durov or Pavel Reeves? The founder of Telegram achieved a striking resemblance to his idol from The Matrix. Photo: still from the video.
The story of Yuri Khovansky’s verification check on the social network is also perceived as an act of “leaderism.” The blogger was invited to serve on the jury of a beauty contest held by VK Live, and according to the company’s tradition, there was no alcohol at the event.
VK Live editor-in-chief Alexey Efimenko told the MK correspondent what happened next. “The event was closed, and in the announcement we warned that there would be no alcohol there and that it was prohibited to take it with you. One of the guests said that Khovansky’s friends poured wine into his glass. Later, when we were cleaning up, a bottle of wine was found. I posted this on my wall (just as a fun fact, not intended to be punitive in any way). Pavel came to comment.”
In open sources, Paul, however, did not call for anything. VKontakte press secretary (at that time) Georgy Lobushkin immediately wrote that Khovansky’s verification was canceled and handed over to the girl who took second place in the beauty contest. Moreover, Alexey Efimenko told about this situation: “Pavel did not agree with the results of the competition and said that first place should have gone to the girl who took second. Later, Pavel came to one of the events with a bag full of new iPhones, one of which he offered to give to this girl.”
The magic of numbers
“Those who are looking for castles, sports car lots and a fleet of Boeings in my life will be sorely disappointed. I don't have planes, cars or houses. My world is traveling on foot and by metro, as well as sleeping in a rented room measuring 18–20 m2. Those who would like to change places with me will also have to completely give up alcohol, meat and expensive clothes,” Pavel Durov once said about himself. And everything would be fine, but it has nothing to do with reality. Well, apart from meat and alcohol, Durov really doesn’t consume them.
This phrase was said to journalists at the peak of his career and, according to people around Pavel Durov, then he tried in every possible way to be like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. But material things were not at all alien to Durov. And, of course, he had every right to do this, but he preferred to carefully hide his true life.
In fact, at the time of the publication of words about the metro and a rented room, Pavel had his own white Maybach, in which he drove around the city, soon after that a private plane appeared, perhaps more than one, a castle in Italy and much more.
Durov’s apartment alone in the Fifth Element residential complex, located on the shore of a pond in the center of Primorsky Victory Park on Krestovsky Island in St. Petersburg, cost 500 million rubles at that time. It was there that the riot police came for him on December 9, 2011, when the FSB raided VKontakte.
In addition, for 500 thousand dollars for himself and his brother, he acquired citizenship of the Caribbean state of St. Kitts and Nevis. Now he has completely moved to Dubai, rented a luxurious office in a skyscraper, rides through the desert on a white horse and attends noisy parties.
Why, one might ask, would you pretend to be Mark Zuckerberg if you are Pavel Durov, no less successful and talented, but completely different? And here we are faced with one interesting feature of Durov.
“He always loved the number two, apparently protesting against the imposed stereotype that two is bad, because it means “failure” in the record book,” says Maxim Kashevarov. “I tried to prove that number two is not bad at all.”
And Pavel Durov was great at being second. Being the second son and the second talented child in the family after his brother, he made the most of the abilities of both of them. Having become second after Zuckerberg, Durov was able to create his own unique product - first VKontakte, then Telegram - and, apparently, this is just the beginning.
But there is something else in which Durov plays the role of the second. If we look at his old photographs, we will see almost a different person there - protruding ears, brown hair with signs of early alopecia, uneven teeth and a small chin - this is what Pavel Durov looked like before. Now we see a bright brunette with thick hair and a sculpted face.
We asked plastic surgeon Gia Kinchidze to evaluate the changes in his appearance.
According to the specialist, firstly, Durov had a hair transplant. “Usually hair from the back of the head is used for this, but judging by the result, this was not the case. This man had very thick hair growing on his head, and most likely he used donor hair grafting. This procedure is not yet common in our country, but it has been done successfully in Germany for a long time. It can cost about 100 thousand dollars. He also performed plastic surgery on the ears and chin, but these are quite easy and inexpensive operations,” noted Kinchidze. Durov obviously dyes his new hair and wears colored contact lenses in front of his eyes.
In addition, the surgeon doubted the reliability of Durov’s muscle relief, suggesting that he could use a new type of liposuction, with the help of which the ideal body shape is constructed. But Kinchidze does not undertake to confirm this from photographs.
Why did Pavel Durov not only correct defects in his appearance, but completely change his type - from a fair-haired “nerd” he turned into a handsome black-haired man? The answer lies in his passion as a student. He watched the movie “The Matrix” countless times and identified himself with Neo, the main character played by Keanu Reeves. Well, apparently, Durov’s childhood dream has come true - almost a copy of Neo looks at him from the mirror every day.
Perhaps, due to dramatic changes in appearance, he does not want to communicate with his own father? We can only guess.
In the wake of Telegram blocking in Russia, Pavel Durov began to engage in a topic unusual for him - politics. Rallies are being organized under his auspices, and he has already become embroiled in an internal opposition scandal. The leadership of the Libertarian Party, of which he is a member, fell out with other oppositionists, refusing to jointly fight for a free Internet. Durov also supported the position of the party members. He also announced the creation of his own virtual political movement, “Digital Resistance.”
Either Durova continues to pursue the second number, he is seriously involved in politics and wants to become the second Navalny, uniting young people around himself, or he started all this to attract people to the TON he created. We will soon find out how things really are.
“Something grandiose awaits you in 2018,” Pavel Durov promised us not so long ago. Is he really going to be the first in anything?
Saint Petersburg.
Photo: http://www.ntv.ru/novosti/561657/
Biography of Pavel Durov
He went to first grade at school in Turin, where his father worked for several years.
Returning to his hometown and studying a little at a regular school, Pavel entered the experimental classes of the Academic Gymnasium (now Mednikov’s Academic Classes), which provides in-depth study of all subjects, including four foreign languages.
There he had a reputation as an erudite and sat at the first desk due to vision problems.
At the age of 11, he first became interested in programming.
In 2001 he graduated from the Academic Gymnasium with honors. In 2002, Pavel entered the Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University, majoring in English Philology and Translation.
Pavel graduated from the university in 2006 with honors (which he never took). A year earlier, he completed his professional training at the Faculty of Military Training of St. Petersburg State University with a specialization in Propaganda and Psychological Warfare. During his studies at this faculty, Pavel served as a platoon commander at the Faculty of Philology, and upon graduation received the rank of reserve lieutenant.
Projects of Pavel Durov
While studying at the university, Pavel created non-profit Internet projects designed to improve the quality of social and scientific life of the university. These are the sites Durov.com - an electronic library of university abstracts, as well as a place for the exchange of ideas and opinions of students and Spbgu.ru - a university forum, where Pavel often initiated various discussions, in which, using different accounts, he argued with himself.
By the summer of 2006, he realized that his student websites, while popular, were ineffective in uniting students, since many hid their names under nicknames and their real faces under avatars: students could communicate with each other online without even suspecting that study in the same group. Then he started looking for another form for the student website. Later, Pavel’s old friend, who returned from the USA after studying, introduced him to an Internet project for American university students, where users posted their real names and photographs in their profiles. Durov decided to introduce a similar website concept in Russia, that is, real people under real names.
The beginning of VKontakte
Pavel began implementing this project immediately after graduating from university.
He, together with his brother, Nikolai Durov, founded the limited liability company VKontakte and launched a beta version of the network of the same name, whose domain - vkontakte.ru - was, according to official data, registered on October 1, 2006. At first the site was closed. But at the end of the year registration became free.
Within a few days, the network attracted more than 2,000 users; the reason is a competition - an iPod for whoever invites the most friends.
Pavel repeatedly received offers to buy his product, but he rejected them. Instead, the programmer attracted investors to his project. VKontakte was developing before our eyes.
Already in 2007, it became the third most popular site on the Runet; in 2008, the network was monetized, and the number of users exceeded 20 million.
In 2010, Pavel’s company moved into the Singer house, which is located on Nevsky Prospekt, opposite the Kazan Cathedral.
In December 2011, Pavel and the head of the DST Global fund, Yuri Milner, launched the Start Fellows charity project, which is aimed at financing startups selected on a competitive basis.
On January 24, 2012, at the Digital Life Design (DLD) conference in Munich, during a joint presentation with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, Pavel promised to donate one million dollars to the online encyclopedia.
In March, the transfer of the promised amount to the Wikimedia Foundation account was confirmed.
Pavel Durov left Russia
On April 16, Pavel Durov announced that on December 13, 2013, the FSB demanded that the network’s management hand over the personal information of the organizers of the Euromaidan groups, to which he refused.
On April 22, 2014, it became known that Pavel Durov had gone abroad and had no intention of returning to Russia. Pavel travels the world with his team of programmers and works on creating the Telegram messenger.
On January 24, 2014, it became known that in December 2013 Durov entered into a deal to sell his remaining 12% of VKontakte shares to Ivan Tavrin and ceased to be the owner of the network.
On April 21, Pavel Durov resigned from the post of general director of VKontakte LLC, explaining this by reducing the available freedom of action.
Awards of Pavel Durov
For his academic achievements and contribution to student life at the university, he was awarded a Government scholarship Russian Federation, and then a scholarship.
Pavel was a three-time winner of the Potanin Scholarship, and was also one of a select number of St. Petersburg State University students with the highest level of intelligence and leadership abilities. He won competitions in computer science, linguistics and design, and organized university-wide events.
In 2007, the newspaper “Business Petersburg” recognized Durov as one of the winners in the “Best Young Entrepreneurs of 2007” competition.
As of 2011, Durov, with a fortune of 7.9 billion rubles, occupied 350th place in the ranking of Russian billionaires.
"Durov Code"
On November 19, 2012, the publishing house Mann, Ivanov and Ferber published Nikolai Kononov’s book “The Durov Code,” which describes the formation of the VKontakte social network. The book is based on biographical facts and an interview with Pavel Durov.
Durov Pavel VK
Id of Pavel Durov “Vkontakte”: http://vk.com/durov
Contacts of Pavel Durov
Twitter: https://twitter.com/durov
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/durov
Instagram: https://instagram.com/durov/
14 min. reading
Updated: 09/07/2019
One of the biggest challenges is to be yourself in a world that tries to make you like everyone else.
Paul Valerievich Durov (born October 10, 1984, Leningrad) – Russian businessman, programmer, developer and co-founder of the social network VKontakte, led VKontakte as CEO from 2006 to 2014, currently the founder and CEO of the Telegram messenger.
At the age of 31, Mr. Durov entered the Forbes ranking of “Russia’s 200 Richest Businessmen.” They like to call him a “ruble billionaire,” but this data is almost out of date: Mr. Durov is approaching a new title – “ dollar billionaire". From 2016 to 2017, his capital increased from $600 million to $950 million. Now he is in the TOP 100 “richest people in Russia 2017” at position 100 (Forbes).
Pavel is handling millions, but we are not just talking about millions of rubles and dollars. He created a digital country with a multi-million population (over 100 million users), giving life to the VKontakte resource.
How many smart boys from intelligent families become millionaires? What helped Pavel to use his mind correctly, open his own business and achieve success? The biography of Pavel Durov will tell us about this.
Family and childhood of Pavel Durov
Durov Pavel Valerievich was born on October 10, 1984 in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad).
One of his great-grandfathers was a nobleman, the other a farmer, both subsequently lost their property.
The head of the Durov family, Valery Semenovich, Doctor of Philology, headed the department at St. Petersburg State University. Mother, Albina Aleksandrovna, grew up in Omsk, where she learned their language from German settlers. Having moved to Leningrad, she easily entered the journalism department. The grown-up Pasha admits that he is grateful to his father and mother for their upbringing, his parents “ set an example of optimism and hard work even in difficult times for our family.”
Pavel was the youngest in the family; his mother had two more sons: Mikhail (from his first marriage, he was an adult and lived separately) and Nikolai (born in 1980). It was Nikolai who set a worthy example for little Pavlik. The older brother grew up as a smart little boy, at the age of 3 he read “Popular Astronomy”, and at 7 he “clicked” cubic equations. Pasha was gifted in a different way, he often drew pictures of guests at home and deftly caught the similarities.
In 2015, on Twitter, congratulating his father on his anniversary, Durov Jr. noted:
My father taught me and my brother the values of perseverance, honesty and hard work
Hard work and determination are important qualities of a successful person.
Studying in primary schools
Pavel Durov changed four schools. When his father was offered to teach Russian in Turin, the family moved to Italy. Pasha was taken away a few months later, and before that his grandmother took him to a regular Leningrad school.
From 1990 to 1992, Pasha studied at the Coppino-Falletti di Barolo school (Turin), and upon returning to St. Petersburg he attended a comprehensive school (1992-1996). There was a conflict with the teachers. In Italy, children were taught differently, without coercion, and the authority of the teachers was not hammered into the head of the elementary school student. Pavlik could make a remark to the English teacher, reproaching him for incorrect pronunciation. In the 4th grade, Pasha became interested in programming and, together with Nikolai, created programs on his first computer, an IBM PC XT. In the computer class, instead of a screensaver, he installed a photo of a computer science teacher on school cars, signing it with the friendly “must die” (English: “must die”).
In 1996, the young rebel was transferred to the Academic Gymnasium of St. Petersburg State University, where lessons, including 4 languages, are taught in depth. Pavel values the acquired knowledge very much; according to the millionaire, knowledge of languages broadens his worldview and promotes career growth. Durov has 9 foreign languages, he can easily maintain a conversation in international English, exotic Persian, Latin, as well as Français, Deutsch, Español, Italiano.
In the experimental classes of the gymnasium, Durov meets the same smart people as himself. Nevertheless, classmates described him as a non-team student, claiming that he “always found a way to be independent.” Journalist Nikolai Kononov, whose biography of Durov belongs, will come to the conclusion that Pavel “was known as a sociopath because few people wanted to talk to anyone at school.”
In 2001, Pavel Durov graduated from high school with honors, did not reach the “gold”, and was awarded a silver medal. When asked “what do you want to become,” the graduate joked: “an Internet totem.” In principle, he became one - an idol, a symbol, a totem of the most popular Russian-language social network.
University years
In 2001, Pavel became a student at the same university as Kolya. The older brother is studying mathematics and programming at St. Petersburg State University, and Pasha chose the specialty “English Philology and Translation”.
A philology student becomes a university activist. " Pavel spoke quietly, but for some reason everyone fell silent and began to listen“- this is how businessman and scientist Yuri Lifshits, also a student at St. Petersburg State University, speaks about Durov’s leadership charisma. Pavel is included in the ranking of students with the highest level of intelligence. For his outstanding achievements, he was awarded a government scholarship and a scholarship from the President of the Russian Federation. Durov has been a recipient of the V. Potanin program for 3 years in a row.
As a student, Durov acted as a web developer for two Internet projects:
- The Durov.com resource is a platform for students to exchange useful information, an electronic database of essays, coursework, etc.
- The website spbgu.ru is a forum for students of St. Petersburg State University. Here Durov intuitively “felt” for the future concept of “VKontakte” - he modeled a real communication scheme: when creating a profile, students indicated their real first and last name, department. “I tried to kindle the fire,” admits Pavel, who contributed hot topics for discussion to the forum. “We had to create the illusion of a critical mass.”
While working on these non-profit projects, Pavel saw that power comes not only from money, but also from control of information. Running websites got him used to the idea of having no boss . He strives to work for himself, and not for his “uncle.”
In 2005, with the rank of “reserve lieutenant,” Durov graduated from military school with a specialization in “Propaganda and Psychological Warfare.” In 2006, he left his alma mater, having earned a diploma with honors.
Foundation and development of VKontakte
After university, Pavel took up the creation of VKontakte. It all started with friendly advice. His classmate Vyacheslav Mirilashvili, a student at Tufts University (USA), observed the growing popularity of the social network Facebook, the creation of Mark Zuckerberg, in America. Having learned from “Business Petersburg” about the St. Petersburg State University forum and Durov’s successes, he wrote to Pavel about the idea of creating a similar Russian-language network. Durov liked the plan, because the search for classmates was personally relevant for him and Vyacheslav: After all, we might never meet again.
At first the site was called “Student.ru,” but then Pavel changed the name to a more comprehensive one. Durov created the portal’s logo quickly, typing it in “Tahoma” font in 3 minutes. He chose colors that " don't piss anyone off"– blue, white and gray.
The site has not become just a “Facebook clone”. Durov claimed that they “never copied without using their brains.”
The friends did not have start-up capital, Vyacheslav turned to his father, Mikhail Mirilashvili, for help. Thanks to his support, VKontakte LLC was established and the project was launched. There were three founders of the company: Vyacheslav Mirilashvili with a controlling stake, and co-owners Lev Leviev and Pavel Durov with a non-controlling share of securities.
FIRST STEPS OF THE SITE
In 2006, the number of visitors to Runet social networks grew exponentially: Odnoklassniki, launched in March 2006, had gained 1.5 million users by November. The demo version of VKontakte appeared on time - in September 2006, just a little more and it could have been late. Durov created a personal page with ID No. 1 http://vkontakte.ru/id1.
At first the site was closed, registration was available by personal invitation. After 3 months, from December 2006, the resource began to be replenished by everyone. Aspiring businessmen organized a drawing with a prize from “invite more friends and you will receive an iPod.” In a couple of days, the site attracted over 2 thousand users.
Pavel selected the right people for his team.
Remember: there are very few of you who can do something and not talk.
Actions, not words, lead a person to success.
Durov resolutely fired those who raised any doubts. His brother Nikolai worked with him. He resolved issues of server load, which were very relevant: from 2006 to 2007, the VK audience increased to 3 million.
Durov was awarded the title of “Best Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2007” by the publication “Business Petersburg”, and in the same year the popular vote of the Runet Prize put the portal in 2nd place. The resource of that time was non-profit, without advertising, and thus fundamentally differed from other Internet endeavors.
VKontakte is beginning to interest potential buyers, but Pavel does not want to sell the development; instead, he attracts investors. The first financial sponsor was Yuri Milner, Chairman of the Board of the Digital Sky Technologies investment fund. The Internet investor was remembered by the VKontakte team for the fact that he himself took the initiative and personally came to them.
The investor acquired 24.99% of the shares and later resold them to Mail.ru Group.
In 2008, the network's audience amounted to more than 20 million registered clients. This year the site is being monetized and advertising banners are appearing.
In 2010, the company's central office moved to Nevsky Prospekt 28, to the building of the Singer company. Of the six floors of the house, the web developer rents the top two for the company headquarters. Later, he will buy a huge space - a squat on Nevsky 65, where his overworked employees can also spend the night. Pavel himself did not want to get attached to anything, he rented an apartment nearby, lived here and there, but mostly in a squat. Later he will give the keys to these square meters to Vasily Babich, an employee of the company. Durov didn’t come into the office before 12 o’clock, he worked in his own way until 3-4 o’clock in the morning.
In 2011, with already 7.9 billion rubles in his pocket, the programmer entered the TOP of the richest businessmen in Russia (350th place). One of his colleagues Oleg Andreev explained the results of a newcomer to the IT industry by saying that Durov “ knew how to look through the eyes of a person who has an old browser and slow Internet.”
In 2011, Durov, as the best startup creator on the Runet, was included in the Forbes TOP. However, Pavel is not limited to creating a startup, he decides to finance them. By the end of 2011, six “startups” received $25 thousand each on a competitive basis.
Pavel does not limit the VK audience and dreams of entering the European market. In 2011, the domain moved to the shortened address vk.com, which is easier to understand by residents of other countries.
In 2011, a photo of Pavel Valerievich showing an indecent gesture was published in Forbes. The eccentric hero finds himself in 3rd place in the ranking of extravagant and eccentric businessmen, to whom the press has already included.
This gesture, instead of a thousand words, became Pavel Mail.ru Group’s response to the company’s attempts to absorb the social network. Director of Mail.ru Group Dmitry Grishin already owned Odnoklassniki and wanted to merge the resources together.
The founders of the company, Mirilashvili and Leviev, did not approve of the actions of the freedom-loving co-founder. In April ’12, they sold their part of VKontakte (40% and 8%, respectively) to the United Capital Partners (UCP) group of companies, without informing the other shareholders - Durov and Mail.ru Group - about the deal.
Life in exile
In December 2011, after protests against the falsification of the State Duma election results, FSB officers recommended Durov to block opposition communities and meetings on the resource. The general director of VK rejected the offer, after which he was invited to the prosecutor's office to testify.
In 2011, special forces visited Durov. Durov shared with reporters from The New York Times that the idea of creating Telegram (Durov’s next product after VK) dawned on him precisely at the moment when these trained guys approached his apartment.
They had weapons and looked very serious. It seemed like they wanted to break down the door
Durov advocates free access to information on the Internet. For the convenience of users (free music tracks, videos), he had to pay more than once: content owners filed lawsuits for non-compliance with copyright. In 2010, the State Television and Radio Company VGTRK was the first to take VK to court for illegally posting its content on the site. After 2 years, singer Sergei Lazarev warned that he would sue for pirated content on VK. Durov responded to this by informing on Twitter that Lazarev’s compositions had been removed from the site and quipped that now the cultural value of VKontakte had increased. Durov himself did this check for pirated content:
In January 12th, during the Digital Life Design conference, Pavel announced to Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, his intention to sponsor the encyclopedia. After 3 months, the programmer donated $1,000,000 to the Wikipedia project. The patron believes that money " overrated because creation is much more interesting than consumption.”
Pavel Durov initiated the championship for VK Cup programmers. In 2017, this open youth tournament (from 14 to 23 years old) is held for the fourth time.
His first post on the social network Twitter, dated May 9, read: “People are walking. Of course, 67 years ago Stalin defended Hitler’s right to repress the population of the USSR.” A company spokesman said that the head of VK honors the Victory Day. And the comment arose from the fact that Pavel’s grandfather (WWII participant Semyon Tulyakov), having received three wounds and the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree, was repressed without trial or investigation in peacetime.
2 On May 27, on the city day, VK managers, together with their boss, launched paper airplanes with 5,000-dollar banknotes attached to them from the windows of the central office. Townspeople gathered under the main headquarters of the VK and started a fight over banknotes. Durov was showered with angry comments accusing him of snobbery. The head of VKontakte explained that he only wanted to maintain a cheerful mood on the occasion of the founding day of St. Petersburg, but “ I had to stop quickly - people began to go wild».
HIDDEN CASE
On April 5, 2013, an accident occurred near the VK office. The investigation concluded that the car that hit the traffic police officer was driven by the founder of VK. But in October 2013, due to the “absence of a crime,” the case was closed, then reopened, and closed again in 2014.
In December 13th, the FSB of the Russian Federation asked the head of VKontakte for personal data of the organizers of the Euromaidan communities. The CEO of the social network refused to provide information. He valued the trust of millions of Ukrainian clients of the resource, and considered the issuance of information about the user base illegal.
UCP vs. MAIL.RU
What you own sooner or later begins to own you Durov's quote claims to be included in the collection of classical aphorisms.
He quickly sells off material “anchors”: furniture, property, shares. In 2014, he parted with 12% of VK, selling them to his friend Tavrin (media manager, former head of Megafon). The securities, in turn, were bought from Ivan Tavrin by the Mail.ru group, which eventually acquired a controlling 52 percent. The holder of 48% of the securities, the UCP association, stated that the policies of Mail.ru Group harm the interests of VK and began legal claims.
The X-hour struck on 03/21/14, when Pavel drew up a statement “on his own.” It was signed a month later: “ Probably, in Russian conditions something like this was inevitable, but I’m glad that we lasted 7.5 years.”
On April 22, 2014, information appeared that Pavel Valerievich left his homeland. The former CEO considers his departure final. He commented to TechCrunch journalists that for him there was no way back: Especially after I publicly refused to cooperate with the authorities.
The founder of the portal calls VKontakte the best that has been created in the field of communication on the Russian market, and it is difficult to argue with him. The facts speak for themselves: the startup’s growth in popularity has broken all Runet records. The site, conceived as a means of finding friends, has transformed into the largest social network in the Russian Federation; in terms of the number of “users,” VKontakte is ahead of the Russian-language segment of Facebook and Odnoklassniki. The resource is visited monthly by more than 97 million people (data from April 2017).
PILGRIM'S LIFE
The programmer named 7 conditions under which he could return: reforms of the courts and education, simplification of laws, economic autonomy of the regions, etc.
1 Elected judges and open courts. Durov believes that only judges chosen by ordinary people, not officials, as well as jurors, can ensure the most fair and independent outcome of the proceedings. This, in turn, will help develop entrepreneurial initiative.
2 Deregulation (simple laws). Paul is against the abundance of laws that contradict each other. They stimulate the development of corruption in the country and slow down economic growth.
3 Open competitions for government positions. Officials, fearing for their jobs, form their teams through established friendships and family ties, as a result of which significant positions can be occupied by illiterate and ineffective employees. This also affects the country's corruption and economic development. It is necessary to introduce transparent mechanisms and direct elections to government positions.
4 A tax haven based on income from the export of raw materials. Russia is rich in natural resources. It is necessary to free underdeveloped sectors of the economy from taxes and shift their burden to well-developed raw material sectors. This will help attract investment, equalize the balance of development and give impetus to the economic development of the entire state.
5 Economic autonomy of regions. It is necessary to change the taxation structure in such a way that the bulk of regional taxes remain locally and are not redistributed, as now, to the capital.
6 Abolition of feudal remnants. Freedom of consciousness of the population is the basis of progress and economic development of Russia, which is currently hampered by the slave consciousness formed through military service, the institution of registration, and the need to obtain a separate passport for travel.
7 Destandardization of the education system. The modern education system limits the consciousness of the younger generation and forms stereotyped views. We need flexibility and non-standard training programs that will educate free and creative individuals.
In his VK profile, in the “political beliefs” column, “libertarianism” is listed (a movement that prohibits “aggressive violence”).
Now I am very happy, living without any property and considering myself a citizen of the world
Pavel has citizenship of Saint Kitts and Nevis, he received it for investing in the country’s economy. The passport of this state in the Caribbean with a population of 50 thousand allows you to freely travel around the world. Durov does not sit still, he changes locations a couple of times a month. Together with him, programmers developing Telegram travel to different cities and countries.
Telegram is a new project by Pavel Durov
On August 14, 2013, Telegram was launched, an application for smartphones and other mobile devices where you can exchange text messages and files of various formats. The messenger is designed with an emphasis on speed and security.
Telegram allows you to supplement your posts with funny pictures – stickers. A special feature of the stickers in the application is the absence of a background, which creates the illusion of a sticker.
The messenger is free for users, but it costs Durov a lot. Pavel – “2 in 1”, is both the founder and sponsor of Telegram. Every year Durov finances it with approximately $12 million. He warns against getting too carried away with money: “ boring work with dull cowards, having to lie and betray your world - these are just part of the price you pay for excessive desire for paper.
Telegram uses a special message encoding method developed by Nikolay Durov. The server part uses the power of US and German companies. Durov's project was developed on the assumption that "all communication channels are monitored." "Even our system administrators cannot access user chats,” assures the creator of the system.
In June 2014, Telegram was awarded a prestigious award in Berlin - at the Europas competition it was named the fastest growing startup of the year. The Europas Prize was established in 2009 and selects the most progressive and innovative technology startups in Europe.
In November 2014, the application had about 1 million installations (data from TJournal), a couple of months later – already 35 million.
In 2014, The New York Times named the entrepreneur Russian. The programmer admits: My dream is to break the national inferiority complex by proving that products from Russia can be in massive demand all over the world.
In 2015, there was talk of selling Telegram to Google Corporation (for $1 billion), but Durov denied information about the deal.
In February 2016, another reason to celebrate appeared: Telegram reached the 100 million mark. active users per month.
Representatives of the Russian government warned of blocking Telegram if Durov does not change the anonymity policy. But the fundamental concept of Telegram implies the security of correspondence; Pavel refused to give out information about users.
FSB officers stated that when planning the explosion in the St. Petersburg metro that occurred on April 3, 2017, Telegram was used as a communication channel. The messenger has been called a method of communication for terrorists.
“Privacy is ultimately more important than our fear of bad things like terrorism,” the Telegram creator said in an interview with TechCrunch. “ISIS will always find other ways to communicate.”
When asked by Roskomnazdor in May 2017 to provide information for registering the messenger, its founder refused. In June, Durov nevertheless sent information, warning that further release of clients’ personal data was out of the question.
Pavel Durov encrypts his personal life no less carefully than his correspondence on Telegram. Little more is known about her than a donut hole. He does not post photos with his beloved on his pages on the Internet, and it is not known whether he has one. The heartfelt connections attributed to him (with Alena Shishkova, Vika Odintsova, Daria Bondarenko) are unverified. Pavel does not post images of his loved ones; instead, he shares photos of the beautiful places he visits.
Personal life and worldview of Pavel Durov
Pavel’s love for the color black in his wardrobe, to which he has been partial since his university days, is also noted by the European media: “all-black wardrobe,” they succinctly comment. suggested “a car of any color, if this color is black,” we can say that Durov wears clothes of any color, if this color is black.
Indeed, with a height of 178 cm and a weight of 75 kg, Pavel can afford to show off a little. This image of a figure in black received over half a million likes on VK!
The image of a figure in black received over half a million likes on VK
Pavel is a member of the Mensa community, which includes people with an IQ exceeding the intelligence level of 98% of the world's inhabitants. Research by psychologists shows that “smart people” do not need a lot of communication to feel happy; the higher the intelligence, the less the need for a large number of friendships. Maybe that’s why in 2017 Durov “purged” his friends on social networks and subscribers of his Youtube channel? “We must not be afraid to get rid of outdated ideas, connections, places of work.
Pavel does not talk on his cell phone (“it’s outdated, it’s too intrusive”), he admires Che Guevara and. He is a vegetarian and indifferent to drinking. Pavel is an active supporter of a healthy lifestyle; during his work at VK, advertising of alcohol and cigarettes was prohibited, because he considers them the strongest drugs. He also classifies love as a drug, so he prefers not to fall in love.
His favorite film is the black-and-white drama “12 Angry Men” (1957), and the most important thing for him is self-development. The online authority speaks about his main aspiration this way:
I would describe my life’s work more broadly: helping people and improving the world around us
Pavel Durov's rules of success
On November 19, 2012, the biography of the “totem” “The Durov Code” was presented. Real story“VKontakte” and its creator” by Nikolai Kononov, editor-in-chief of the Hopes&Fears publication. The rights to the film adaptation of the book about Durov were purchased by AR Films. It was previously reported (2012) that the film would be released at the end of 2017, but circumstances have changed a lot since then. In the preface to the publication, writer Yuri Saprykin noted: “The hero of this book does not fight for freedom - but affirms it by the very fact of his existence.”
Pavel Durov is a representative of a new generation of purposeful businessmen.
Not only his native publications write about him, but also BBC News, The Guardian, Silicon Allee, Fortune.
He belongs to the world “digital elite”, uniting brave and talented programmers. Pavel has a keen entrepreneurial vision. He is hardworking, determined, true to his principles and values freedom very much. He is, of course, not a sociopath or a totem, but a person from whom there is something to learn. He has more than 20 tips for achieving success, some of them are philosophical, some are mundane and applied. His “golden recommendation” is as follows:
Do what you truly enjoy and you will be much happier.
In 2006, he graduated from the Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University with a degree in English Philology and Translation with honors (which he still hasn’t taken). A year earlier, he completed professional training at the Faculty of Military Education of St. Petersburg State University with a specialization in Propaganda and Psychological Warfare, after which he received the rank of reserve lieutenant. Immediately after graduating from university, he created VKontakte, currently the largest social network in Russia. As of 2011, Durov, with a fortune of 7.9 billion rubles, occupied 350th place in the ranking of Russian billionaires.
Mother - Albina Aleksandrovna Durova.
Brother - Nikolay(born 1980), mathematician, candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, multiple winner of Russian and international olympiads in mathematics and computer science, twice absolute world champion in programming among students, from the day of its foundation until mid-2013 he was the technical director of VKontakte .
Half-brother - Mikhail Petrov, son of Albina Durova from her first marriage.
Pavel's grandfather, Semyon Petrovich Tulyakov (born 1913), participated in the Great Patriotic War. He served in the 65th Rifle Regiment, took part in battles on the Leningrad Front in the Krasnoborsk and Gatchina directions, and was wounded three times. He was nominated for the Order of the Red Star, awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree, and on the 40th anniversary of the Victory, the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree. After the war was repressed [clarify] .
Biography
When I looked at people who commute to offices every day for routine work, I could not imagine such a scenario in my life. Managing Internet projects and organizing university events taught me independence and the idea that I had no direct superiors.
Even while studying at St. Petersburg State University, Pavel created non-profit Internet projects designed to improve the quality of social and scientific life of the university. These projects were the sites Durov.com and Spbgu.ru. The first project is an electronic library of university abstracts, as well as a place for students to exchange ideas and opinions; the second is the university forum, where Pavel often initiated various discussions, in which, using different accounts, he argued with himself. But by the summer of 2006, he realized that his student websites, despite all their popularity, were ineffective in uniting students, since many hid their names under nicknames and their real faces under avatars: students could communicate with each other online without even realizing it. that they study in the same group. Then he started looking for another form for the student website. Later, Pavel’s old friend, who returned from the USA after studying, introduced him to an Internet project for American university students - Facebook, where users posted their real names and photographs on their profiles. Durov decided to introduce a similar site concept in Russia, that is, real people under real names. The original name of the future project - “Student.ru” - was replaced by Pavel with “VKontakte”, since, according to him, “sooner or later we all become graduates.” He began implementation immediately after graduating from university. Pavel and his brother, Nikolai Durov, founded the limited liability company “VKontakte” and launched a beta version of the network of the same name, whose domain - vkontakte.ru - was, according to official data, registered on October 1, 2006. At first the site was closed, in other words, it was possible to register only after a personal invitation. But at the end of the year registration became free. Within a few days, the network attracted more than 2,000 users; the reason is a competition - an iPod for whoever invites the most friends. The rapidly growing number of users forced the creators to change servers and improve software support for the network. Pavel repeatedly received offers to buy his product, but he rejected them. Instead, the programmer attracted investors to his project. VKontakte was developing before our eyes. Already in 2007, it became the third most popular site on the Runet; in 2008, the network was monetized, and the number of users exceeded 20 million. In 2010, Pavel’s company moved into the Singer house, which is located on Nevsky Prospekt, opposite the Kazan Cathedral.
On May 27, 2012, top managers of VKontakte, led by Durov, threw airplanes with 5,000-ruble banknotes attached to them from the window of the company’s central office in St. Petersburg. Soon a crowd gathered under the windows and even started a fight for the money. Pavel later explained that with his action he wanted to create a festive atmosphere on City Day. Durov then scattered a total of about $2,000. The joy with which he watched the crowd's reaction was also reported. According to eyewitnesses, Pavel filmed what was happening on camera. While working at VKontakte, Pavel lived in a rented apartment next to the office, where, according to him, developers could stay overnight.
On April 5, 2013, it was reported that while driving a car, Durov turned left from Sadovaya Street to the embankment of the Moika River, violating the requirements of the road sign. The traffic police officer who noticed the offense tried to stop the car. The driver did not comply with the requirement, continuing to drive, and as a result hit the employee, causing him bruises and abrasions. Initially, the VKontakte press service denied Pavel’s involvement in the incident, pointing out that their general director did not have a car. In addition, the car itself belonged to the vice-president of the company Ilya Perekopsky. But in June, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg proved that it was Durov who was driving. Immediately after the incident, a criminal case was opened against Pavel under an article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (use of violence against a representative of authority), which, after an investigation, was closed in June 2013, and the offense itself fell under the article of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (disobedience to a lawful order of a police officer), so how the investigation did not collect sufficient evidence of the deliberate use of violence. In September 2013, it became known that the criminal case was returned for further investigation in order to establish the presence or absence of criminal intent in the actions of Pavel Durov. Evidence indicating that Durov’s actions were deliberate and aimed at using violence against the police officer was again not found by investigators, and at the beginning of 2014 the criminal case was again discontinued.
In February 2014, the United Capital Partners (UCP) Fund, which owns 48% of VKontakte shares, announced that it intends to defend its interests “in Russian and international jurisdictions.” UCP representatives accused Pavel Durov and Mail.ru Group employees of actions contrary to the interests of VK. The fund explained that they had previously tried to resolve the issues peacefully, but all proposals were blocked by representatives of Mail.ru Group and Megafon CEO Ivan Tavrin, who at that time owned a controlling stake in VK (52%). The UCP noted that this behavior of the VK co-owners “extremely surprises and worries them.”
Having exhausted all possibilities for a reasonable agreement, we transfer disputed cases on “VK” to legal companies. The brief essence of our complaints is that Pavel Durov and representatives of Mail.ru Group systematically made and continue to make decisions not in the best interests of VK...
In response, USM Advisors CEO Ivan Streshinsky accused UCP of systematic pressure on VK shareholders:
Since its declared entry into VKontakte, UCP has demonstrated a reluctance to build constructive relationships with other shareholders and the company’s management, preferring a strategy of threats, blackmail and intrigue. In particular, an entire campaign was organized to put legal pressure and publicly discredit the founder of VKontakte, Pavel Durov, with whom the UCP began communication with threats of lawsuits and criminal prosecution.
In contact with
“VKontakte” is the largest social network in Runet, the first most popular site in Belarus, the second in Russia, the third in Ukraine, the fifth in Kazakhstan, the 26th in the world, which is estimated at $1.5 billion. For example, in September 2012, the site's daily audience averaged 22 million people. As of September of the same year, more than 140 million users were registered on VKontakte. In terms of the speed of its growth, the social network has broken all Runet records. The network's major shareholder is Mail.Ru Group, a holding company that owns, as of April 2011, 32.49% of all VKontakte shares.
VKontakte provides financial support for developing Olympiad programming in Russia and sponsors teams of programmers in St. Petersburg and North-West Russia. Among the company's employees are the best Russian programmers, laureates international competitions in programming and mathematics.
On January 24, 2014, it became known that in December 2013 Durov entered into a deal to sell his remaining 12% of VKontakte shares to Ivan Tavrin and ceased to be the owner of the network.
What you own sooner or later begins to own you.
I've been actively disposing of my possessions over the last few years, giving away and selling everything I owned, from furniture and belongings to real estate and companies. To achieve the ideal, all I had to do was get rid of the largest part of my property - a 12% share of VKontakte. I am glad that not so long ago I achieved this goal by selling my share of VKontakte to my friend Ivan Tavrin.
This change is unlikely to affect the management of VKontakte - the board of directors listens to my opinion not because of the presence or absence of my share, but because I created this network and understand its deep mechanisms. I’m not going anywhere and I’m going to continue to monitor the quality of VKontakte. In the end, VKontakte is the best thing that has been created in Russia in the communications field. And my responsibility is to take care and protect this network.
On April 1, Pavel Durov announced on his page his resignation from the post of General Director of VKontakte LLC, explaining this by a reduction in the available freedom of action, but then, on April 3, he withdrew his resignation letter. Then it turned out that this was not an April Fool's joke; on April 21, the owners of the social network VKontakte granted the resignation letter, which had previously been sent to them by the general director and founder of the network, Pavel Durov.
Telegram
On August 14, 2013, the first Telegram client was introduced. In November, the program had, according to TJournal, about 1 million installations. In an interview with The New York Times, Pavel said that the initial idea for the application came to him back in 2011, when special forces came to his door. When the latter finally left, Durov immediately wrote to his brother Nikolai. It was then that he realized that he had no safe way to communicate with his brother. The service is built on MTProto correspondence encryption technology, developed by Pavel’s brother Nikolai.
In response to proposals from some officials to ban the messenger in Russia, on December 24, 2015, on his VKontakte page, Pavel Durov stated: “As for Telegram, the project has not and will not issue personal data and encryption keys to third parties. Messenger is popular among tens of millions of users in dozens of markets, and the threat of blocking in one or two of them will not affect its privacy policy."
Emigration
On April 16, Pavel Durov announced that on December 13, 2013, the FSB demanded that the network’s management hand over personal information of the organizers of the Euromaidan groups, to which he refused. In December, a deal was made to sell a stake in the company. According to him, Russian jurisdiction does not extend to Ukrainian users of the VKontakte social network. Durov also noted that distributing data from Ukrainian users would not only be a violation of the law, but also a crime against millions of users from Ukraine.
On April 22, 2014, it became known that Pavel Durov had gone abroad and had no intention of returning to Russia. He said this in an interview with TechCrunch. He noted: “Unfortunately, it is impossible to run an Internet business in this country.”
The founder of VKontakte also said that in the near future he plans to focus on creating a mobile social network. Later, the UCP fund, which at that time owned 48% of the shares of VKontakte, stated that it did not consider Pavel Durov’s resignation from the post of general director a fait accompli. UCP partner Yuri Kachuro believed that the executive director of VKontakte exceeded his authority and did not discuss such a serious decision with the board of directors.
Durov constantly moves from country to country, never staying in one for more than two or three weeks. His team of programmers travels with him to Paris, Singapore and other cities, with whom he develops the Telegram messenger. Pavel reported that he was not a fan of the idea of the state. “Now I am very happy, living without any property and considering myself a citizen of the world.” In addition to the Russian one, he has a passport from the state of Saint Kitts and Nevis; he received this passport after investing in the country’s economy.
Views and beliefs
Pavel Durov holds libertarian political views and is also a vegetarian. He advocates reform of the Russian educational system; abolition of taxes in the field of information; abolition of the visa system, registration and military conscription; reduction of customs duties; granting regions full autonomy; and also for the openness of the jury. He is inspired by Ernesto Che Guevara and Steve Jobs, and according to his religious beliefs, he is, according to some sources, a Pastafarian, according to others, a supporter of the Zen school.
Relationship to Facebook
When it became known that Facebook was looking for employees in Russia, Durov said that VKontakte employees do not switch to employment in another network, since “there are no fools” and Facebook is a “sinking ship.” A month earlier, he had already called the American social network a “stronghold of pedoliberals,” and in May 2012, on his Twitter account, he ironically called it a “cheap hack.”
Business style
Durov is characterized by a tough, sometimes even arrogant style of doing business. In 2011-2012, he waged a “corporate war” with Mail.ru Group, a major shareholder of VKontakte. The conflict began in March 2011 with the holding’s attempts to absorb the social network by purchasing 100% of its shares and merge the site with Odnoklassniki. In response, Durov called Mail.ru a “trash holding”, showed them the middle finger and convinced the co-founders of VKontakte not to sell their shares. Only in April 2012 did the “war” stop.
In the spring of 2012, a conflict broke out between VKontakte and the editors of the Vedomosti newspaper. Thanks to a technical innovation on the site, users could view the full texts of articles from web publications without clicking on an active link. Vedomosti considered this illegal and openly accused the social network of copyright infringement. VKontakte ignored the statement, and later disabled the activity of links to publications on the Vedomosti website. In the end, the newspaper’s editors removed the VKontakte widgets from their website and “froze” the publication’s official page on the social network. The managing director of the Vedomosti publishing company accused Durov of his inability to conduct a “civilized business.”
Criticism and recognition
Some Western media called Pavel the Russian Mark Zuckerberg. In 2011, Pavel was in third place on the list Forbes“9 of the most unusual Russian businessmen - extravagant, eccentrics and eccentrics” for publishing a photograph in which he demonstrates an obscene gesture in response to the efforts of a major shareholder of VKontakte - Mail.ru Group - to absorb this social network. The same magazine published a list of “30 most notable figures in Russian Internet business,” where Pavel was in seventh place. Durov was in 42nd place in the list of the most cited bloggers in the Russian media in the first half of 2012, according to a study by the Medialogia company. One of the creators of VKontakte, Oleg Andreev, explained the reason for the success of the social network in this way: “Pavel, unlike most programmers, understood what schoolchildren and students want from life, and how it looks in design. He knew how to look through the eyes of a person who has an old browser and a slow Internet."
Durov’s action of throwing airplanes with banknotes was harshly criticized by popular bloggers and journalists. Thus, Vladimir Solovyov called this act “a merchant’s whim,” and Durov himself a “underdog.” Solovyov was supported by the current
