Pavel Durov was born in Leningrad, but spent most of his childhood in Turin, Italy. His father Valery was employed there. He attended an Italian elementary school, and after returning to Russia in 2001 attended the Academy Gymnasium in St. Petersburg. In 2006, he graduated from the Philology Department of the Saint Petersburg State University, where he received a first class degree. Pavel Durov's early life and career are described in detail in the Russian-language book The Durov Code. The True Story of VK and its Creator. Durov started VKontakte, later known as VK, in 2006, which was initially influenced by Facebook. During the time when he and his brother Nikolai built upon the VKontakte website, the company grew to a value of $3 billion. In 2011, he was involved in a standoff with police in St. Petersburg when the government demanded the removal of opposition politicians' pages after the 2011 election to the Duma; Durov posted a picture of a dog with his tongue out wearing a hoodie and the police left after an hour when he did not answer the door. In 2012, Durov publicly posted a picture of himself extending his middle finger and calling it his official response to Mail.ru's efforts to buy VK. In December 2013, Durov was pressured into selling his 12% of VK stock to Ivan Tavrin, the owner of the major Russian internet company Mail.ru, who subsequently sold it to Mail.ru, giving it 52% majority ownership of VK. In 2014, Mail.ru bought all remaining shares and became the sole owner of VK.
Dismissal from VK
On 1 April 2014 Durov submitted his resignation to the board; at first, due to the fact the company confirmed he had resigned, it was believed to be related to the Ukrainian crisis which started in February. However, Durov himself claimed it was an April Fool's Joke on 3 April 2014. On 16 April 2014 Durov publicly refused to hand over data of Ukrainian protesters to Russia's security agencies and block Alexei Navalny's page on VK. Instead he posted the relevant orders on his own VK page claiming that the requests were unlawful. On 21 April 2014 Durov was dismissed as CEO of VK. The company claimed it was acting on his letter of resignation a month earlier that he failed to recall. Durov then claimed the company had been effectively taken over by Vladimir Putin's allies, suggesting his ouster was the result of both his refusal to hand over personal details of users to federal law enforcement and his refusal to hand over the personal details of people who were members of a VKontakte group dedicated to the Euromaidan protest movement. Durov then left Russia and stated that he had "no plans to go back" and that "the country is incompatible with Internet business at the moment".
Life after VK
Upon leaving Russia, he obtained Saint Kitts and Nevis citizenship through donating $250,000 to the country's Sugar Industry Diversification Foundation, and secured US$300 million in cash within Swiss banks. This allowed him to focus on creating his next company, Telegram, which was originally based in Berlin and focused on an encrypted messaging service. Later he tried to launch the "Gram" cryptocurrency and the TON platform, raising a $1.7 billion startup with investors including the widow of Steve Jobs, Laurene Powell Jobs. However, these ventures were halted by federal courts.
Views
Durov is a self-described libertarian and vegetarian. In 2012, he published manifestos described by commentators as "Libertarianism" detailing his ideas on improving Russia. For his twenty-seventh birthday in 2011, he donated a million dollars to the Wikimedia Foundation, the founder and honorary chairman of which is fellow libertarian Jimmy Wales.
Accolades
Durov has been called the Mark Zuckerberg of Russia. In August 2014, Durov was named the most promising Northern European leader under 30. He was in 2017 chosen to join the WEF Young Global Leaders, representing Finland. On 21 June 2018 the Union of Kazakhstan's Journalists awarded Durov "for his principled position against censorship and the state's interference into citizens' free online correspondence." Fortune magazine included Durov in their “40 Under 40” list, an annual ranking of the most influential young people in business.
