The founder of VK Pavel Durov, whose biography is full of rumors and contradictions, is one of the youngest Russian billionaires and a very extraordinary person. Like any other story of great success, the life of a young man is characterized by a very active professional position, bold decisions and confident steps towards achieving goals. Now VK is a social network that has become an integral part of the lifestyle of most Russians, and Pavel Durov's fortune is estimated at 0.6 billion dollars.

Childhood and youth

Valeryevich was born on October 10, 1984, the place of birth is Leningrad. The Durov family was distinguished by intelligence and education.

Pavel's father Valery Semenovich heads the department of classical philology at St. Petersburg University, his mother has two higher educations. The brother is a candidate of physical and mathematical sciences. According to Pavel Durov, the family had a serious impact on the formation of his personality, thanks to hard work and the right attitude, even in difficult times.

Pavel went to school for the first time in Turin. At this time the family lived in Italy. A few years later, the Durovs again moved to St. Petersburg, and the boy was forced to continue his education in an ordinary school, but this did not last long.

After a short period of time, it became clear to both parents and teachers that this child had no place among ordinary schoolchildren and teachers, whom he often reproached for being unprofessional. As a result, Pavel Durov was transferred to the Academic Gymnasium, where he was surrounded by the same gifted children. He studied well, constantly sitting at the first desk due to poor eyesight.

From early adolescence Durov gained a reputation as a rather cruel joker and aroused a wary attitude from his peers. Having learned to program, he hacked into educational computers and installed screen savers on them that made fun of the teacher.

University studies and first projects

Programming became a common hobby for both brothers. But after graduating from the gymnasium, when they entered St. Petersburg University, Pavel, unexpectedly for everyone, chose the Faculty of Philology, while his brother Nikolai continued his education in the physics and mathematics direction.

As a student, Pavel made the most of this time. He did not just study, but tried to create something new, constantly experimenting and turning to his abilities in the field of programming. At the same time, he successfully mastered linguistics and design, constantly winning competitions in these disciplines.

The first attempt on the network was the creation of the site durov.com, where students could share with each other educational materials to be very convenient and appreciated by classmates. Having reached the goal, Pavel left this resource unattended and took up other projects.

The next brainchild of Durov was the university website spbgu.ru. The future billionaire paid special attention to the possibilities of communication on the site's forum, trying to enrich it as much as possible and bring it closer to communications to real life. So, groups of friends, communities and other first signs of social networks began to appear on the site's forum. Users noted the fundamental differences between this resource and similar ones: students could indicate their real names, belonging to departments, etc., which at that time was an unusual, but very convenient innovation.

Like Durov's other projects, spbgu.ru was not intended to make a profit. And despite the enormous popularity of the resource among students, the site did not contain advertising banners, with the exception of those related to education.

The origin of the idea of ​​"Vkontakte"

Even then, Pavel realized that he wanted to continue to engage in similar projects, invent and create something new, but definitely not go to routine work every day on a schedule. Routine, monotony and bureaucracy were alien to him to such an extent that he even refused to take his linguist diploma from the university.

Studying was easy for him, and already as a student, the future ruble billionaire demonstrated pronounced leadership qualities, which allowed him to become a three-time winner of the Potanin scholarship, as well as to be a scholarship holder of the President of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Russian Federation.

Despite the impressive success of the university website, Durov did not stop thinking about the idea of ​​​​creating a larger community that would bring together not only students, but also graduates, because it was assumed that the connection between people after graduation from the university should not be lost. During this period, his classmate Vyacheslav Mirilashvili contacted him, who at that time was studying at one of the American universities. From St. Petersburg newspapers, he learned about Durov's success in creating and promoting the site spbgu.ru, and told a gifted classmate about the rapidly gaining popularity social network facebook.com.

Launch of "Vkontakte"

Childhood friends and other Russian programmers joined forces and ideas, and already on October 1, 2006, the vkontakte.ru domain was officially registered. Initially, the ideas of the name were associated with attracting students, but in the end, in order not to be limited only to the student environment, the more general phrase “in contact” was chosen as the name. The money for the launch was borrowed from one of the firms owned by Vyacheslav Mirilashvili's father.

The rapid development of the social network, the first investors

Initially, registration was possible only by invitation and was carried out only by name and surname. Since December 2006, the VKontakte social network has been fully operational. At first, users were attracted through contests, under the terms of which the one who attracted the most registrants would receive a gift. Then, when free registration was opened, the number of visitors began to grow rapidly, and Durov had to take care of the stable operation of the servers. After the first year of operation of the social network, it became clear that it required multimillion-dollar investments, and there was no place to take funds from. Ideas about advertising and other monetization were cut off, a search for investments was started. Thus, 24.99% of the company was acquired by the largest Internet investor Yuri Milner. He extolled Durov's business idea, his abilities, and was inclined not to interfere in the matter, which suited the founder of Vkontakte LLC quite well.

Forced monetization

VK is a social network designed to expand the possibilities of communication, make it more convenient and accessible, and not a means of deriving benefits - such was Durov's initial point of view on his offspring. However, the sixteen million dollars that the Milner deal brought in was not enough to cover all the expenses that the growing social network demanded.

And the problem of overloaded servers and security became more and more urgent. Then, in 2008, Pavel Durov took the first steps to monetize the resource - paid "votes", gifts and contextual advertising appeared. Then the social network "Vkontakte" already had more than twenty million users.

Upgrading and empowering

In 2011, the site changed functionally and visually, which at first was perceived by users as very contradictory. The usual wall turned into a microblog, likes appeared, viewing photos became more convenient and functional, it became possible to add videos from other resources. Despite the indignation of some regular visitors to Vkontakte, the new appearance and the content everyone quickly got used to, and the talented programmer once again confirmed his reputation as a person who is constantly working to improve the quality of the proposed product. At that time, Pavel Durov's fortune was estimated at 8 billion rubles.

Conflicts with copyright defenders

The confrontation of the popular social network with copyright defenders turned out to be inevitable. Very quickly, Vkontakte was flooded with numerous films, videos, music, the number of which became the subject of endless disputes about the legality of such content.

The All-Russian State Television and Radio Company even sued the social network, the key was the demand to remove the content that belonged to it from Vkontakte. Despite the fact that most of the Internet resources that faced such a requirement went along with the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, Durov responded with a decisive refusal, and won this trial. His position was and remains the conviction that the meaning and essence of the Internet is in the freedom of information dissemination. However, in some disputes with copyright holders, he still had to go to a meeting. Currently, illegally placed films and music are being removed from VK, which in general does not reduce the high information content that the resource has achieved over the years of its existence.

Ambitious development plans

Pavel Durov's fortune grew rapidly with the number of users. But despite the colossal success of the social network created by the Corporation of Excellent Students, Durov always realized that Vkontakte, being a Russian-language resource, cannot develop indefinitely, while Western counterparts with a predominant English language opportunities in this direction are much wider. In this regard, Durov began to actively strive for international benchmarks in development. The first step was to rename the domain, which has acquired a shorter and more convenient sound for users from different countries - vk.com.

How Durov was "not in contact"

The purchase of a quarter of the corporation's shares in 2008 marked the beginning gradual transition Vkontakte LLC in other hands. Durov invariably clashed with law enforcement and the courts, which weakened his position as CEO of the company. After refusing to block the page of one of the oppositionists, he even had to face FSB representatives who visited his office with machine guns, despite the fact that he gave quite intelligible explanations for his decision - he was afraid of an outflow of regular visitors to other resources, and believed that banning something on one site doesn't prevent users from finding the same thing on another.

Mail.ru Group's claims to the company's shares did not stop. In 2013, Vyacheslav Mirilashvili and Lev Leviev, who founded VK together with Durov, sold their stake to the UCP fund without agreeing this decision with the main founder, who remained at the helm, but with only 12% of the company's shares.

In 2014, the corporation underwent major personnel changes initiated by new shareholders. The positions of Durov, who continued to be subjected to various kinds of accusations (including the unreasonable waste of the company's funds, the development of new projects competing with VK, etc.), became even more unreliable. On April 1, he filed a letter of resignation from the post of CEO, due to the fact that it became increasingly difficult for him to uphold the principles of the functioning of the social network, which were laid down at the time of its creation. Later, he also sold his stake in the company. The state of Pavel Durov, however, is still the subject of discussion of well-wishers and envious people.

It is known that the founder of VK Pavel Durov, whose biography is full of various rumors, adheres to libertarian views, is a vegetarian and does not drink alcohol. In addition to his enthusiastic work on the creation and development of various kinds of projects, he loves to travel very much, and can visit dozens of countries a year. At the same time, he is not an adherent of luxury, and despite the fact that a year after the launch of Vkontakte he became one of the richest Internet entrepreneurs, he got to work public transport and lived in a tiny rented apartment.

Often Pavel Durov was in the center high-profile scandals. One of them broke out in St. Petersburg on City Day in 2012, when Pavel, leaning out of the window of his office, threw five-thousand-dollar bills attached to paper airplanes into the crowd. A seemingly innocent joke turned into an action that was condemned in all circles. However, Pavel himself explained this by the desire to hold a festive action. According to him, he did not expect such a violent reaction from the people.

Science and programming support

The name of Pavel Durov is associated not only with Russia, but also with active charitable activities. He organized many competitions for young programmers from all over the world. hallmark his sponsorship has always been a lack of material interest. Unlike other sponsors of similar events, he did not seek further benefits from the young professionals he supported.

Currently, Pavel Durov, whose fortune ("Forbes") is 0.6 billion dollars, is among the 200 richest Russian businessmen, ranking 135th in this rating.

Pavel Durov - one of the youngest Russian millionaires, founder of the popular social network VKontakte, was born on 10/10/1982 in Leningrad.

Childhood

Pavel was born into a very intelligent family of professors. His father taught philology at Leningrad State University, defended his Ph.D., then his doctoral thesis, and instilled in his sons (Pavel has an older brother) a love of science and taught him to think logically and work effectively with various information sources.

Pavle spent his childhood in Turin - his father worked there for several years under a contract. There the boy went to first grade. But then the family again moved to Russia. Father considered education in a regular school to be too average, so he soon transferred Pavel to the gymnasium at the university where he worked.

It cannot be said that Pavel was an exemplary student, but his academic performance was always excellent. Partly because he usually sat in the first rows (the boy simply did not see further, and did not want to wear glasses), partly so as not to spoil the reputation of his father, who was well known in the gymnasium.

The problems arose mainly because of the curiosity of the boy, who in high school became seriously interested in computers. In addition to the standard school assignments, Pavel tried to write own programs. Once he got a big hit for hacking the gymnasium's network server. But in general, the teachers encouraged his interest and often offered individual assignments.

student body

After receiving a certificate of secondary education, Durov remained at the university, enrolling in the Faculty of Philology. By this time he already knew 4 foreign languages and dreamed of a career as an interpreter. He chose English as his specialization, which every year became more and more popular all over the world.

During his student years, Pavel continued to intensively study programming. He was mainly engaged then in the creation of non-profit projects that made life easier for many students. Almost all of them were successful, and some of them are still functioning, for example, the university website and the library of electronic abstracts.

Studying was easy for Pavel, so there was enough time for his own hobbies. In parallel with his main studies, Pavel also attended the military department, where he acquired the specialty "Propaganda and psychological warfare", which was very useful to him when organizing large Internet projects and creating a social network.

"In contact with"

The idea of ​​​​creating a social network was suggested to Durov by a friend who came from the States and was delighted with the fact that there you can communicate with real users who are not hidden behind avatars and exchange news and gifts. It was about Facebook, which was then actively gaining momentum, but was not yet widely known in Russia and did not have a Russian-language version.

Pavel immediately realized that this was very profitable idea, and he can become the first in a new niche, and began to actively develop new project. But, being savvy in the methods of information warfare, he began by officially registering a corporation for the project (together with his brother) and patenting the name. He then purchased the domain and launched a pilot version of the project.

Users liked it. In 2006, VKontakte was founded, and just a year later it was recognized as one of the most promising and rapidly developing commercial projects.

Unlike Facebook, this network had a more entertaining direction. Pavel constantly came up with new contests for users and invested decent money in its development.

In 2008, the network already had more than 20 million users, and Durov understands that the time has come to profit from a successful project. He hires employees, rents a prestigious office for the company and continues to actively develop and improve VKontakte.

To date, the network is confidently holding in the top three sites in terms of traffic, and Pavel is among the richest people in Russia.

Durov today

Despite the fact that Durov is actively involved in charity work and supports start-up businessmen, opinions about him as a person are extremely ambiguous. On the one hand, he greatly appreciates his own staff and is loyal to his employees.

On the other hand, many condemn his business methods and call them too harsh. With competitors, he manages on the principle of "all means are good in war."

From time to time, he attracts attention with very defiant antics. For example, one day he started to run from windows own office airplanes made from banknotes. As a result, a crowd gathered under the windows and even skirmishes broke out, which were dispersed by the police.

In 2013, Durov knocked down a policeman who was trying to stop his car almost at full speed. But experienced lawyers managed to hush up the case, and Pavel escaped with only material losses. However, the same person allocated a million rubles for the development of the information and educational non-profit project "Wikipedia".

One way or another, he remains a bright and extraordinary personality, a successful entrepreneur and an enviable groom, whose heart is still free. In 2014, Durov categorically refused to provide the data of users of the VKontakte network to the special services and soon left Russia.

He considers himself a citizen of the world, constantly moving from one country to another. Currently developing a new project Telegramm.

15 tips from Russia's most eccentric millionaire Pavel Durov. He shares the secrets of his success with everyone.

If you were to conduct a survey “Who is the most eccentric millionaire in Russia?”, then most of the answers would probably be: “ Pavel Durov».

He was really remembered by many for his original actions (for example, throwing banknotes over St. Petersburg on the day of the city), harsh statements, at least about the same World War II, tough defense of his business interests, peculiar political and religious positions.

But be that as it may, the creator of the largest Russian social network VKontakte deserves to be studied by those who strive for success.

Why exactly Pavel Durov?

For me, reading biographies famous people is one of the most rewarding activities.

This is the only way to understand that everyone can achieve success, earn a lot of money and leave a mark on history.

What needs to be not magical creature or super-lucky, but a smart person who works hard, looks for new ways of development and is constantly learning.

The success story of Pavel Durov illustrates as clearly as possible that one can become a ruble billionaire not thanks to inheritance, not thanks to someone's help, without resorting to illegal actions.

You can achieve everything only thanks to your own talent, which does not dig into the ground, but develops.

Well, of course, without studying market trends and understanding which startup will bring unprecedented profits, it could not have done.

The childhood of Pavel Durov

Pavel Durov will be born into an intelligent Leningrad family on 10/10/1984.

The history of the name of Pavel Durov is not simple.

His grandfather, being a hero of the Great Patriotic War, suffered from the repressive Stalinist system after the end of hostilities.

His son, Valery Semenovich Durov, fortunately, did not have to answer for the sins of his father and he was able to make a good career: he studied classical philology, became a doctor of science, and wrote many scientific papers.

He even got the opportunity to work for a couple of years in Turin (Italy), where his son Pavel became a first-grader.

After returning to Russia, Pavel Durov is engaged in general education school, but very soon both the teachers and the boy's parents realize that he unusual child, who has nothing to do in a standard school, so he is sent to study at the Academic Gymnasium.

Here they studied all disciplines according to the extended program, taught 4 and developed the hidden talents of their students.

So, at the age of 11, Pavel Durov understood what he wanted to do: programming.

It was in the Academic Gymnasium that the extraordinary character of Durov was revealed, his love for eccentric pranks and dislike for harsh discipline was formed.

However, this did not prevent him from getting an excellent secondary education.

Where did Pavel Durov receive his higher education?

In 2001, Pavel Durov graduated from the Academic Gymnasium with a medal and decided, oddly enough, to follow in his father's footsteps and get a diploma in philology at St. Petersburg University.

At the university, Durov proved himself to be an extraordinary student: he won the All-Russian Olympiads, was awarded the Government and Potanin scholarships, organized various events, repeatedly showed leadership qualities, embarrassed teachers with his level of intelligence.

Naturally, the best student with a red crust graduated from St. Petersburg State University, which is still gathering dust in the dean's office.

In parallel with his studies at the Faculty of Philology at St. Petersburg State University, Pavel also received the rank of lieutenant, becoming interested in the topic of propaganda and psychological warfare.

Neither philology nor military affairs worked out for Pavel Durov, but programming still attracted him relentlessly.

How Pavel Durov founded VKontakte?

While still a student, Pavel Durov was engaged in programming, developing various interesting Internet projects.

The brainchild of Durov the student was the sites Durov.com, Spbgu.ru, where students could communicate, hiding behind nicknames and avatars, as well as an Internet database of essays and term papers, which greatly facilitated the learning process.

But Durov wanted people to be able to contact online using their personal names, sharing photos and important events in life.

A friend who returned from America told Pavel that American students are crazy about the Facebook social network, and Durov's brilliant mind seized on this idea.

So, 1.10.2006 with light hand Pavel Durov, the social network VKontakte appeared.

The brainchild made its founder a truly rich man, and until 2014 Pavel Durov's fortune increased at a rapid pace.

At the end of 2013, Pavel Durov was forced to leave the leadership of VKontakte and say goodbye to his own block of shares due to pressure from the FSB.

In 2014, he already started working on a fresh mobile social network.

About the success story of the creator of the most popular social network

in the post-Soviet space

see also in the video:

Pavel Durov is not a greedy person, so he willingly shares the secrets of his success with everyone who wants to hear him.

Here are 15 of the most interesting, in my humble opinion, advice from Pavel Durov:

You need to find something that will bring you pleasure.

Doing your favorite work and getting paid for it, you will become truly happy.

Clear your life of garbage.

By "garbage" Durov means cigarettes, alcohol, junk food (Pavel has been a vegetarian for many years).

Subdue your time.

Learn to manage your affairs in such a way that everything is in time and that most of the work is done without your direct participation.

Read as much as possible.

It will surely change your life for the better.

Learn foreign languages.

At least you should know English perfectly, in our age it is a vital necessity.

Do not be afraid to part with those employees, friends and acquaintances who do not suit you.

The success of the project largely depends on how good a team you form.

1. It is very important, when setting a goal, to form it briefly, as accurately as possible and visualize it on paper.
2. If you want to be successful in modern world Learn in one lesson for as long as possible.

Don't waste time.

Weekends should also be spent with benefit: visiting museums, theaters, playing sports, visiting parents, reading good book or watching an interesting movie.

Learn to get up as early as possible.

adult healthy person enough to sleep 7 hours, everything else is laziness.

3. Spend a minimum of time on the Internet, TV, following the news, it’s better to do something useful.
4. Learn something new every day to expand the horizons of your own knowledge.
5. Travel as much as you can, this is a great investment.

Go in for sports.

Do you want to go to the fitness room? No problem!

Do something more interesting: rock climbing, diving, skydiving, cycling, etc.

6. There are no obstacles that cannot be overcome.

   We build all barriers and restrictions ourselves.

Today Pavel Durov does not live in Russia.

He travels a lot, is still subject to criticism, which he does not pay the slightest attention to, continues to implement new ideas and earn money.

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Pavel Durov is no longer the CEO of Vkontakte. Exactly one month ago, he notified the board of directors of the social network of his resignation for own will, yesterday his powers were terminated automatically.

The powers of Pavel Durov as CEO of Vkontakte LLC have been terminated, follows from the message of the largest social network in Russia, VKontakte (in January, the daily audience, according to Liveinternet, was about 60 million people). The report emphasizes that on March 21 this year, Mr. Durov sent a letter of resignation of his own free will. This meant that in a month he should be fired. Yesterday this deadline set Russian legislation, has expired. Before the appointment of a new leader operational management will be carried out by First Deputy General Director Boris Dobrodeev and Executive Director Dmitry Sergeev. This information was confirmed by the press secretary of Vkontakte Georgy Lobushkin.

On April 1, Pavel Durov circulated a statement on his page on the Vkontakte social network, where he announced his resignation from the post of CEO. In it, he explained that, after the United Capital Partners (UCP) fund took over 48% of the company's shares (in April 2013, UCP bought out the shares of partners Pavel Durov, Vyacheslav Mirilashvili and Lev Leviev), "the CEO's freedom of action in managing the company was significantly reduced ".

However, a day later, Mr. Durov changed his mind about leaving, sending a letter to the members of the board of directors on the night of April 3, withdrawing his resignation.

However, as Vkontakte's management explains, after Mr. Durov disavowed his resignation, calling it an April Fool's joke, he did not withdraw the application itself. “We could not get clarity on Pavel’s intentions. The opinion of our lawyers is unambiguous - we are simply forced to issue a dismissal,” Dmitry Sergeyev explained to Kommersant. “It is widely known that the company is now in a tense shareholder situation, there are a number of lawsuits. involved in them on a daily basis are obliged to correlate each action and any situation with the norms of the law and strictly observe all formalities.

The company has created the position of the chief architect of the network, indicates Mr. Sergeev, in whose opinion " best solution it would be to offer it to Pavel. "It will not require his involvement in the operational business and constant participation in current processes, which has become for Pavel, taking into account international projects and lawsuits is difficult, but it will keep the connection between Pavel and the company, ”Dmitry Sergeev is quoted in the VKontakte message.

Rumors about the upcoming departure from the company of Mr. Durov have been circulating since the appearance of UCP among its co-owners. The Fund, in particular, blamed Pavel Durov for using VKontakte resources to work on the Telegram instant messenger, which, according to UCP, competes with the social network, and initiated consideration of the issue of changing the CEO. In December 2013, Pavel Durov sold his Vkontakte shares (12%) to MegaFon CEO Ivan Tavrin. And in March, Ivan Tavrin ceded his stake in VKontakte to Mail.ru Group, which had a total of 51.99% of the company's shares.

On April 7, UCP declared itself the owner of several companies associated with Telegram at once, and said that it had filed lawsuits with the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and the High Court of Justice of the Virgin Islands, demanding that Telegram be transferred to VKontakte. In turn, Mail.ru Group disputes in London arbitration the very fact of UCP's purchase of Vkontakte's stake.

For USM Advisors CEO Ivan Streshinsky (representing the interests of Alisher Usmanov, the main shareholder of Mail.ru Group), the fact that the resignation was not withdrawn and the company was forced to satisfy it came as a surprise. "We have always stated how important the figure of its founder is for the company," Mr. Streshinsky emphasized. The UCP declined to comment. Pavel Durov traditionally did not answer Kommersant's questions.

Biography

Pavel Valerievich Durov - Russian entrepreneur, programmer, ruble billionaire, one of the founders of the VKontakte social network and the company of the same name; creator of the cross-platform messenger "Telegram". Former CEO VKontakte (2006-2014). In his student years, he was a laureate of scholarships from the President of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Russian Federation, a three-time winner of the Potanin scholarship.

In 2001 he graduated with honors from the Academic Gymnasium, in 2006 - the Faculty of Philology of the St. state university in the specialty "English Philology and Translation" with a red diploma (which has not yet been taken). Finished a year earlier vocational training at the Faculty of Military Education of St. Petersburg State University with a degree in Propaganda and Psychological Warfare, after which he received the rank of reserve lieutenant. Immediately after graduation, he created VKontakte, the largest on this moment social network in Russia. In 2011, Durov, with a fortune of 7.9 billion rubles, ranked 350th in the ranking of Russian billionaires.

Paul is a vegetarian and adheres to libertarian political views. Durov is called the Russian Mark Zuckerberg, and is also often criticized for his eccentric antics and statements. On November 19, 2012, Nikolai Kononov's book "Durov's Code" was published, describing the formation of VKontakte and its creator; AR Films has already acquired the rights to adapt it.

In 2014, he left Russia and said that he was not going to return.

Family

Father is a doctor philological sciences Valery Semyonovich Durov (born 1945), author of many scientific papers, since 1992 head of the Department of Classical Philology of the Philological Faculty of St. Petersburg State University.

Mother - Albina Alexandrovna Durova.

Brother - Nikolai (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 foundation and until mid-2013 was technical director"In contact with".

Half-brother - Mikhail Petrov, son of Albina Durova from his first marriage.

Pavel's grandfather, Semyon Petrovich Tulyakov (born 1913), participated in the Great Patriotic War. He served in the 65th Infantry Regiment, participated in the battles on the Leningrad Front in the Krasnoborsk and Gatchina directions, was wounded three times. Introduced to the Order of the Red Star, awarded the Order Patriotic War II degree and on the 40th anniversary of the Victory with the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree. After the war he was repressed.

Pavel Durov was born in Leningrad on October 10, 1984 in an intelligent family. He went to the first grade of the school, being in Turin, where his father worked for several years. Returning to his hometown, Pavel did not study for long at a regular school and entered the experimental classes of the Academic Gymnasium (now the Mednikov 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. His trick is known when he changed the screensaver of all school computers to a photo of a computer science teacher with the caption “Must die” (Russian Must die). Durov was deprived of access to computers, but he cracked passwords to them. In 2001, he graduated from the Academic Gymnasium with honors. In 2002, Pavel entered the Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University with a degree in English Philology and Translation. For his academic achievements and contribution to the student life of the university, he was awarded a Government scholarship. Russian Federation, and then a scholarship of the President of the Russian Federation. Pavel became the winner of the Potanin scholarship three times, and was also one of the selected number of students of St. Petersburg State University with the highest level of intelligence and leadership abilities. He won Olympiads in computer science, linguistics and design, organized university-wide events. Pavel graduated from the university in 2006 with a red diploma (which he never took). 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. During his studies at this faculty, Pavel served as a platoon commander of the Faculty of Philology, and upon graduation he received the rank of reserve lieutenant.

Even during his studies at St Petersburg University, Pavel created non-commercial Internet projects designed to improve the quality of the public and scientific life of the university. These projects were Durov.com and Spbgu.ru. The first project is digital library university abstracts, as well as a place for the exchange of ideas and opinions of students; 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 sites, for all their popularity, were ineffective in bringing students together, as many hid their names under nicknames, and real faces under avatars: students could communicate with each other on the network without even suspecting that study in the same group. Then he started looking for another form for the student site. Later, Pavel's old friend, who returned from the United States after studying, introduced him to an Internet project for American university students - Facebook, where users posted their real names and photos in profiles. Durov decided to introduce a similar website 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 to implement immediately after graduation. Pavel and his brother, Nikolai Durov, founded a society with limited liability"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. In a few days, the network attracted more than 2,000 users; reason - competition - iPod to the one who invites large quantity 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 developed before our eyes. Already in 2007, it became the third most popular site in 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 2007, the Delovoy Petersburg newspaper named Durov one of the winners in the Best Young Entrepreneurs 2007 competition. In 2011, Durov, with a fortune of 7.9 billion rubles, ranked 350th in the ranking of Russian billionaires. In December 2011, Pavel and the head of the DST Global fund, Yuri Milner, launched the Start Fellows charity project, which aims to finance startups selected on a competitive basis. By the end of December, six startups received $25,000 each. On January 24, 2012, at the Digital Life Design (DLD) conference in Munich, during a joint speech 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 account of the Wikimedia Foundation was confirmed. "We greatly appreciate Mr. Durov's generous offer and thank you for your understanding of the grant review process," said Jay Walsh, spokesman for the Wikimedia Foundation.

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, which even started a fight for the money. Later, Pavel explained that by his act he wanted to create a festive atmosphere on City Day. Durov then scattered a total of about 2,000 dollars. The joy with which he watched the reaction of the crowd was also reported. According to eyewitnesses, Pavel filmed what was happening on camera. While working at VKontakte, Pavel lived in a rented apartment near the office, where, according to him, the developers could stay overnight.

On April 5, 2013, it was reported that while driving, Durov turned left from Sadovaya street on the embankment of the Moika River, violating the requirements of the traffic sign. The traffic police officer noticed the offense and tried to stop the car. The driver did not obey the request, continuing to move, and as a result, he hit the employee, inflicting bruises on his legs and abrasions. Initially, the press service of Vkontakte denied Pavel's involvement in the incident, pointing out that their CEO did not have a car. In addition, the car itself belonged to the vice-president of the company, Ilya Perekopsky. But in June Investigative Committee The Russian Federation in St. Petersburg proved that it was Durov who was driving. Immediately after the incident, a criminal case was initiated against Pavel under Article 318 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (use of violence against a representative of the authorities), which, after the investigation, was closed in June 2013, and the offense itself fell under Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (disobedience to the lawful order of a police officer) because the investigation did not collect enough evidence of the deliberate use of violence. In September 2013, it became known that the criminal case had been returned for additional 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 a policeman were again not found by the investigators, and in early 2014 the criminal case was again dismissed.

In February 2014, the United Capital Partners Fund (UCP), which owns a 48% stake in VKontakte, 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 issues peacefully, but all proposals were blocked by representatives of the Mail.ru Group and Megafon CEO Ivan Tavrin, who at that time owned a controlling stake in VK (52%). The UCP noted that such behavior of the VK co-owners "extremely surprises and worries" them.

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, and the 26th in the world, which is estimated at $1.5 billion. For example, in September 2012, the daily audience of the site averaged 22 million people. As of September of the same year, more than 140 million users registered on VKontakte. In terms of its growth rate, the social network has broken all Runet records. A major shareholder of the network is Mail.Ru Group, a holding that owns, as of April 2011, 32.49% of all VKontakte shares.

VKontakte provides financial support for the developing Olympiad programming in Russia and sponsors teams of programmers in St. Petersburg and the North-West of Russia. The company's employees include the best Russian programmers, laureates of international competitions in programming and mathematics.

On January 24, 2014, it became known that Durov in December 2013 concluded a deal to sell the remaining 12% of his Vkontakte shares to Ivan Tavrin and ceased to be the owner of the network.

On April 1, Pavel Durov announced on his page that he was leaving the post of general director of VKontakte LLC, explaining this by reducing the available freedom of action, but then, on April 3, he withdrew his resignation. Then it turned out that this was not an April Fool's joke; on April 21, the owners of the VKontakte social network satisfied the letter of resignation, which had previously been sent to them by the CEO 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 nevertheless left, Durov immediately wrote to his brother Nikolai. Then he realized that he had no safe way communication with brother. The service is based on the MTProto correspondence encryption technology developed by Pavel's brother Nikolai.

In response to the proposals of some officials to ban the messenger on the territory of Russia, on December 24, 2015, on his VKontakte page, Pavel Durov said: “As for Telegram, the project has not and will not give out personal data and encryption keys to third parties. The messenger is popular with 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 the 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 apply to Ukrainian users of the social network VKontakte. Durov also noted that the dissemination of data of Ukrainian users would be not only 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 was not going to return to Russia. He announced this in an interview with TechCrunch. He noted, “Unfortunately, it is not possible to conduct an Internet business in this country.”

“I'm afraid there's no turning back for me. Especially after I publicly refused to cooperate with the authorities.”

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 a 48% stake in VKontakte, said that it did not consider Pavel Durov's resignation from the post of CEO a fait accompli. UCP partner Yuri Kachuro considered 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, not staying in one for more than two or three weeks. Together with him, his team of programmers, with whom he develops the Telegram messenger, travels to Paris, Singapore and other cities. 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 of the state of Saint Kitts and Nevis, he received this passport after investing in the country's economy.

Views and beliefs

Pavel Durov adheres to libertarian political views, and is also a vegetarian. He advocates reform of the Russian educational system; the abolition of taxes in the field of information; the abolition of the visa system, residence permits and military conscription; decline customs duties; granting full autonomy to the regions; and also for the openness of the jury. He is inspired by Ernesto Che Guevara and Steve Jobs, and according to religious beliefs, according to some sources, he is a Pastafarian, according to others, a supporter of the Zen school.

Attitude towards Facebook

When it became known that Facebook was looking for employees in Russia, Durov said that VKontakte employees did not switch to another network for employment, 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 craft.”

Business manner

Durov is characterized by a tough, sometimes even arrogant style of doing business. In 2011-2012, he waged a "corporate war" with a major shareholder of Vkontakte, Mail.ru Group. The conflict began in March 2011 with the holding's attempts to absorb the social network, buying 100% of its shares, and merge the site with Odnoklassniki. In response, Durov called Mail.ru a "thrash holding", showed them 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 full texts articles of web publications without clicking on the active link. Vedomosti considered this illegal and openly accused the social network of copyright infringement. VKontakte ignored the statement, and later turned off the activity of links to the publications of the Vedomosti website. In the end, the editorial office of the newspaper removed the VKontakte widgets from its website and “froze” the official page of the publication on the social network. The managing director of the Vedomosti publishing company accused Durov of being unable to conduct a "civilized business."

Criticism and recognition

Some Western media called Pavel the Russian Mark Zuckerberg. In 2011, Pavel was ranked third on the Forbes list of "9 most unusual Russian businessmen - extravagant, eccentric and eccentric" 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 the Russian Internet business", where Pavel was in seventh place. Durov was on the 42nd place in the list of the most cited bloggers in the Russian media in the first half of 2012, according to the results of a study by the Medialogy 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 a schoolboy and student wants from life, and how it looks in design. He was able to see through the eyes of a person who has an old browser and a slow Internet.”

Durov's action to throw airplanes with banknotes was severely criticized by popular bloggers and journalists. So, Vladimir Solovyov called this act "a whim of a merchant", and Durov himself "nedozuckerberg". Solovyov was supported by the current Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky. Sergei Stillavin wrote in his LiveJournal diary: "A citizen who treats his people like cattle should get the profession of a seamstress-minder in the zone." Sergei Enikolopov concluded that "this is treated in the camps", recalling the executions in the 1920s and 1930s of the "embarrassed" Bolsheviks.

On May 9, 2012, on Victory Day, Pavel wrote on his Twitter: “People are walking. Still - 67 years ago, Stalin defended Hitler's right to repress the population of the USSR. Nikolai Valuev called his words "blasphemy" and announced that he was closing his accounts on VKontakte. Sergei Minaev announced a similar boycott, saying that he did not want to "support scum." Later, the press secretary of VKontakte, Vladislav Tsyplukhin, explained that Durov respects Victory Day, and his record is connected with the fact that “his grandfather went through the whole war,” “and in gratitude he was repressed without trial.”

In literature

On November 19, 2012, the publishing house "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber" published a book by Nikolai Kononov "Durov's Code", describing the formation of the social network "VKontakte". In the center of the plot is its founder, Pavel Durov. The book is quite documentary, based on facts and interviews.

In cinema

AR Films, founded by producer Alexander Rodnyansky, has acquired the film rights to the book Durov's Code. The film is scheduled for release in 2017. Durov himself has a negative attitude towards the film adaptation.