Pavel Valeryevich Durov (Russian: Па́вел Вале́рьевич Ду́ров; born 10 October 1984) is a Russian entrepreneur, best known for being the founder of social networking site VK, and later the Telegram Messenger. He is the younger brother of Nikolai Durov.

Biography

Pavel Durov was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), but spent most of his childhood in Turin, Italy. His father Valery (who holds a PhD in philology) 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.

Durov started VKontakte, later known as VK, in 2006, which was initially influenced by Facebook.

In 2011 he was involved in a standoff with a police team outside his home in St. Petersburg after the government demanded the removal of opposition politicians' pages after controversial parliamentary elections. They left after about an hour.