Durov, Pavel Valerievich
Family
Father - Doctor of Philology Valery Semenovich Durov (born July 13, 1945), the author of many scientific works, since 1992 he has headed the Department of Classical Philology of the Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University.
Mother - Albina Alexandrovna Durova (born April 3, 1951) taught at St. Petersburg State University.
Brother - Nikolay (born November 21, 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 to mid-2013 he was the technical director In contact with.
One-brother is Mikhail Petrov, the son of Albina Durova from his first marriage.
Pavel's grandfather, Semen Petrovich Tulyakov (born 1913), participated in the Great Patriotic War. He served in the 65th rifle regiment, participated in battles on the Leningrad front on the Krasnoborsk and Gatchina directions, was wounded three times. He was introduced to the Order of the Red Star, awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the II degree and on the 40th anniversary of the Victory Order of the Patriotic War of the I degree. After the war he was repressed.
Biography
Pavel Durov was born in Leningrad on October 10, 1984 in an intelligent family. I went to the first grade of school, being in Turin, where his father worked for several years. After returning to his native city, Pavel did not study for a long time in a regular school and entered the experimental classes of the Academic Gymnasium (now the Academic Classes of Mednikov), in which in-depth study of all subjects, including four foreign languages, takes place. There he had a reputation as an erudite and sat at the first desk because of 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 an informatics teacher with the signature “Must die” (from English - “Must die”). Durov was denied access to computers, but he cracked passwords to them. In 2001 he graduated with honors from the Academic Gymnasium.
In 2002, Pavel entered the Faculty of Philology of the 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 scholarship of the Government of the Russian Federation, and then a scholarship of the President of the Russian Federation. Pavel became the laureate of the Potaninskaya scholarship three times, and also entered into the chosen number of students at St. Petersburg State University with the highest level of intelligence and leadership skills. He won in computer science, linguistics and design contests, organized university-wide events. Pavel graduated from university in 2006 with a red diploma (which he never took for 2012).
“When I looked at people who go to their offices for routine work every day, I didn’t imagine such a scenario in my life. The management of Internet projects, the organization of university events taught us independence and the idea that I don’t have direct superiors.”
Pavel Durov
Even during his studies at St. Petersburg State University, Pavel created non-commercial Internet projects designed to improve the quality of the public and academic life of the university. These projects were the sites Durov.com and Spbgu.ru. The first project is an electronic library of abstracts of the university, as well as a place for the exchange of ideas and opinions of students; the second is the university forum, where Pavel was often the initiator of various discussions in which, using different accounts, he argued with himself. By the summer of 2006, Durov realized that his student sites, for all their popularity, were ineffective in bringing together students, as many hid their names under their nicknames, and real people under avatars: students could communicate with each other on the network without even knowing that study in one group. Then he began to look for another form for the student site. Later an old friend of Paul, after studying, he returned from the USA, introduced him to an Internet project for students of American universities - Facebook, where users posted their real names and photos in profiles. Durov decided to introduce a similar concept of the site in Russia, that is, real people under real names. The original name of the future project - "Student.ru" - was replaced by Pavel on "VKontakte", since, according to him, "sooner or later we all become graduates." The project Durov started immediately after graduation. Pavel and his brother, Nikolai Durov, founded VKontakte, a limited liability company, and launched a beta version of the eponymous network, 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 was free. Over the course of several days, the network attracted more than 2,000 users; The reason - the competition - iPod to the one who will invite more friends. The rapidly growing number of users forced the creators to change servers and improve software network support. Paul repeatedly received offers on the subject of buying his product, but he rejected them. Instead, the programmer has attracted investors to his project. VKontakte developed in front of 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 Zinger house, located on Nevsky Prospect, opposite Kazan Cathedral . Over the course of several days, the network attracted more than 2,000 users; The reason - the competition - iPod to the one who will invite more friends. The rapidly growing number of users forced the creators to change servers and improve software network support. Paul repeatedly received offers on the subject of buying his product, but he rejected them. Instead, the programmer has attracted investors to his project. VKontakte developed in front of 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 Zinger house, located on Nevsky Prospect, opposite Kazan Cathedral . Over the course of several days, the network attracted more than 2,000 users; The reason - the competition - iPod to the one who will invite more friends. The rapidly growing number of users forced the creators to change servers and improve software network support. Paul repeatedly received offers on the subject of buying his product, but he rejected them. Instead, the programmer has attracted investors to his project. VKontakte developed in front of 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 Zinger house, located on Nevsky Prospect, opposite Kazan Cathedral . The rapidly growing number of users forced the creators to change servers and improve software network support. Paul repeatedly received offers on the subject of buying his product, but he rejected them. Instead, the programmer has attracted investors to his project. VKontakte developed in front of 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 Zinger house, located on Nevsky Prospect, opposite Kazan Cathedral . The rapidly growing number of users forced the creators to change servers and improve software network support. Paul repeatedly received offers on the subject of buying his product, but he rejected them. Instead, the programmer has attracted investors to his project. VKontakte developed in front of 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 Zinger house, located on Nevsky Prospect, opposite Kazan Cathedral .
In 2007, the newspaper "Business Petersburg" Durov was recognized as one of the winners in the contest "Best Young Entrepreneurs in 2007." In 2011, Durov, with a fortune of 7.9 billion rubles, was 350th in the rating of Russian billionaires. In December 2011, Pavel and the head of the DST Global foundation Yuri Milner launched the Start Fellows charity project, which is aimed at financing startups selected on a competitive basis. By the end of December, six startups received 25 thousand dollars each. On January 24, 2012, at the Digital Life Design (DLD) conference in Munich, during a joint presentation with the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, Pavel promised to donate one million dollars to the online encyclopedia. In March, the representative of the Wikimedia Foundation Jay Walsh confirmed the information about the transfer of the promised amount to the account of the Wikimedia Foundation:
"We very much appreciate Mr. Durov’s generous offer and thank you for your
understanding regarding the grant review procedure .."
On May 27, 2012, the top managers of VKontakte, headed by Durov, threw airplanes with 5000-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 arranged a fight for the money. Later, Pavel explained that by his action he wanted to create a festive atmosphere on the Day of the City. Durov then scattered a total of about $ 2,000. It was also reported about the joy with which he watched the reaction of the crowd. According to eyewitnesses, Paul filmed what was happening on the 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 driving a car, Durov turned left from Sadovaya Street to the embankment of the Moika River, violating the requirements of a road sign. The traffic police officer who noticed the offense tried to stop the car. The driver did not obey the request, continuing the movement, and as a result, he hit the employee, causing him injuries to his legs and abrasions. Initially, the press service of "Vkontakte" Pavel’s involvement in the incident denied, indicating 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, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in St. Petersburg proved that Durov was behind the wheel. Immediately after the incident, Pavel was prosecuted under Article 318 of the Criminal Code (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 CAO RF (disobedience to the lawful order of a police officer), since the investigation did not collect sufficient evidence of the intentional 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 that the actions of Durov were deliberate and aimed at the use of violence against a police officer were not again found by the investigators, and in early 2014 the criminal case was again terminated. as 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 that the actions of Durov were deliberate and aimed at the use of violence against a police officer were not again found by the investigators, and in early 2014 the criminal case was again terminated. as 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 that the actions of Durov were deliberate and aimed at the use of violence against a police officer were not again found by the investigators, and in early 2014 the criminal case was again terminated.
In February 2014, the United Capital Partners (UCP) Foundation, 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 this behavior of the co-owners of “VC” “is extremely surprised and worried” by them.
Having exhausted all the possibilities to a reasonable agreement, we transfer the disputed cases of "VK" to law firms. A brief summary of our claims - Pavel Durov and Mail.ru Group representatives have systematically made and continue to make decisions not in the best interests of VK ...
- UCP partner Yuri Kachuro
In response, the general director of USM Advisors, Ivan Streshinsky, accused the UCP of systematically putting pressure on VK shareholders:
Since its declared entry into VKontakte, UCP has shown an unwillingness to build constructive relationships with other shareholders and the company's management, preferring a strategy of threats, blackmail and intrigue. In particular, a whole campaign was organized on legal pressure and public discredit of the founder of VKontakte Pavel Durov, with whom the UCP began to communicate with threats from the courts and criminal prosecution.
- Ivan Streshinsky
VKontakte is the largest social network in RuNet, for 2012 the first most popular site on the territory of Belarus, the second in Russia, the third in Ukraine, the fifth in Kazakhstan, and the 26th in the world, estimated at 1.5 billion dollars. For example, in September 2012, the daily audience of the site averaged 22 million people. In September of the same year, more than 140 million users registered with VKontakte. By the speed of its growth, the social network has broken all records of the Runet. A major shareholder of the network is Mail.Ru Group, the holding that owns, according to data for April 2011, 32.49% of all shares of VKontakte.
VKontakte provides financial support for developing Olympiad programming in Russia and sponsors teams of programmers in St. Petersburg and North-West Russia. The company's employees include the best Russian programmers, laureates of international programming and math competitions.
On January 24, 2014, it became known that in December 2013, Durov made a deal to sell the 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.
For the past few years I have been actively disposing of property, giving and selling everything that I had, from furniture and things to real estate and companies. To achieve the ideal, I had to get rid of the largest part of my property - the 12% share of VKontakte. I am glad that not so long ago I reached 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 underlying mechanisms. I'm not going anywhere and I am going to continue to monitor the quality of "VKontakte". In the end, VKontakte is the best thing that was created in Russia in the communications field. And my responsibility is to protect and protect this network.
- Pavel Durov
On April 1, Pavel Durov said on his page that he had quit his post as CEO of V Kontakte, explaining that by reducing the existing 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 request for dismissal, which was previously sent to them by Pavel Durov, the CEO and founder of the network.
Since September 16, 2014, the only owner of VKontakte is Mail.Ru Group.
Telegram
Main article: Telegram
August 14, 2013, the first Telegram client is introduced. In November, according to TJournal, the program had about 1 million installations. In an interview with The New York Times, Pavel said that the initial idea of the application came to him back in 2011, when the special forces came to his door. When the latter did leave, Durov immediately wrote to his brother Nicholas. Then he realized that he had no safe way to communicate with his brother. The service is built on the encryption technology of MTProto correspondence, developed by the brother of Pavel Nikolai.
In response to the proposals of some officials to ban the messenger in Russia, on December 24, 2015, on his VKontakte page, Pavel Durov said: “As for Telegram, the project did not issue it and will not issue personal data and encryption keys to third parties. The 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 management hand over personal information to the organizers of Euromaidan groups, to which he refused. In December, a deal to sell a stake in the company took place. According to him, the jurisdiction of Russia 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 went abroad and is not going to return to Russia. He said this in an interview with TechCrunch. He noted: "Unfortunately, in this country it is impossible to conduct an Internet business."
“I'm afraid there is no way back for me. Especially after I publicly refused to cooperate with the authorities.” - Pavvel Durov
The founder of VKontakte also announced that he plans to focus on creating a mobile social network in the near future. Later, the UCP fund, which at that time owned a 48% stake in VKontakte, said it did not consider Pavel Durov’s resignation from the post of director general to be a fait accompli. UCP partner Yuri Kachuro found 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 more than two or three weeks. Together with him travels to Paris, Singapore and other cities and his team of programmers, 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, has a passport of the state of St. Kitts and Nevis, he received this passport after investing in the country's economy.
At the beginning of April 2018, in many media, information was provided about Durov’s getting British citizenship, which Pavel himself denied, citing fake scams.
Views and beliefs
Pavel Durov adheres to libertarian political views, and is also a vegetarian. He advocates the reform of the Russian educational system; the abolition of taxes in the field of information; the abolition of the visa system, registration and military conscription; reduction of customs duties; granting full autonomy to the regions; and for the openness of the jury. He is inspired by Ernesto Che Guevara and Steve Jobs, and for religious reasons he is, according to some sources, a Pastafarian, according to others, a supporter of the Zen school.
On October 10, 2017, on his birthday, Pavel Durov spoke about seven things that he had refused many years ago and which, in his opinion, negatively affect consciousness: alcohol; animal meat; tablets and any pharmaceutical products; nicotine and other drugs; coffee, black and green tea, energy; fast food, sugar, soda; television and its analogues.
Facebook attitude
When it became known about the search for Facebook employees in Russia, Durov said that VKontakte employees are not switching to employment in another network, since “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, in his Twitter account, he ironically called it “cheap artwork”.
Manner of doing business
Дурову свойственен жёсткий, порой даже наглый стиль ведения бизнеса. В 2011—2012 годах он вёл «корпоративную войну» с крупным акционером «Вконтакте» Mail.ru Group. Начался конфликт в марте 2011-го с попыток холдинга поглотить соцсеть, купив 100 % её акций, и объединить сайт с «Одноклассниками». В ответ Дуров назвал Mail.ru «трэш-холдингом», показал им средний палец и убедил сооснователей «ВКонтакте» не продавать свои акции. В апреле 2012 года «война» прекратилась.
In the spring of 2012, a conflict broke out between VKontakte and the editors of the Vedomosti newspaper. Thanks to the technical innovation on the site, users could view the full texts of articles in web publications without making a click on the active link. “Vedomosti” considered it illegal and openly accused the social network of copyright infringement. VKontakte ignored the statement, and later turned off the activity of links to publications of the Vedomosti site. In the end, the newspaper’s editors removed the VKontakte widgets from the site and “froze” on the social network the official page of the publication. The managing director of the publishing company Vedomosti accused Durov of failing to conduct "civilized business."
Criticism and recognition
Some Western media outlets called Paul Russian Mark Zuckerberg. In 2011, Pavel was ranked third in the Forbes list . “9 of the most unusual Russian businessmen - crazy people, eccentrics and eccentrics” for publishing a photo in which he demonstrates an obscene gesture in response to the efforts of the large shareholder of VKontakte, Mail.ru Group, to absorb this social network. The same magazine published a list of "30 most notable figures of the Russian Internet business," where Paul 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 a study by Medialogia. One of the creators of VKontakte, Oleg Andreev, explained the reason for the success of a social network in the following way: “Pavel, unlike most programmers, understood what a schoolchild and a student want from life, and how it looks in design. He knew how to look through the eyes of a man who has an old browser and a slow Internet. ”
Durov's action on throwing airplanes with bills was heavily criticized by popular bloggers and journalists. So, Vladimir Solovyov called this act the “whim of a kupchik,” and Durov himself was a “nondoker kerberg.” Solovyov was supported by the current Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky. Sergey Stillavin wrote in his Live Journal diary: “A citizen who treats his people as cattle should get the profession“ seamstress motorist ”in the zone”. Sergey Yenikolopov concluded that “this is being treated in the camps,” recalling the shootings of the “shabby” Bolsheviks in the 1920s and 1930s.
On May 9, 2012, on Victory Day, Pavel wrote on his twitter: “The people are walking. Why, 67 years ago Stalin defended Hitler's right to repress the population of the USSR. ” Nikolay Valuev called his words “blasphemy” and announced that he is closing his accounts on VKontakte. A similar boycott was announced by Sergey Minaev, saying that he did not want to “support the scum”. Later, VKontakte press secretary Vladislav Tsyplukhin explained that Durov respectfully treats Victory Day, and his record is connected with the fact that “his grandfather went through the whole war”, “and in gratitude was repressed without trial”.
On June 20, 2018, Durov became the laureate of the award of the Union of Journalists of Kazakhstan for a principled stand against censorship and state interference in the free correspondence of citizens on the Internet.
In literature
On November 19, 2012, the publishing house Mann, Ivanov and Ferber published a book by Nikolai Kononov, The Durov Code, describing the development of the social network VKontakte. In the center of the plot - its founder, Pavel Durov. The book is fairly documentary, based on facts and interviews. In the Major Thunder comic series by Bubble Russian publishing house, Pavel Durov is a partial prototype of one of the main villains of the comic, the Plague Doctor.
In the cinema
AR Films, founded by producer Alexander Rodnyansky, has acquired the rights to film the Durov Code book. It was initially stated that the film will be available in 2014. At the same time, Durov himself was negative about the adaptation. Later it became known about the freezing of the project - the company “Non-stop production” (part of AR Films) returned to the Cinema Foundation 25 million rubles allocated for the film version.
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