With his app he wants to beat Whatsapp. Here is the story of the young Russian who made it on the web with Telegram and Vk

His name is Pavel Durov. They had already renamed him the Russian Mark Zuckerberg. But at some point he was forced to flee his country, because the government was angry with him. He had to start all over again.

Pavel, along with his brother Nikolai, is the owner of Telegram. It is the app similar to WhatsApp that is climbing the charts of the Apple and Android stores.

Today he is a web guru and is doing very well. He is 36 years old and a multimillionaire. And even though he is Soviet, he has attended preschool in Turin for years.

In 2011 something upsets his life: the police arrived at his home. He was forced to leave Russia and no longer work at his first company. He is talking about VK, a social network like Facebook.

So he was forced to reinvent himself. And I found his life experience enlightening and taught me something more. It can probably be a stimulus to you too.

Keep reading until the end, you will understand what I mean.

But the troubles with the Soviet State Duma (the majority political groups based in Moscow) were not his only problem to face.

AS A YOUNG MAN, THEY BULLY HIM BUT HE IS STRONGER; HE ALREADY WANTED BE THE BEST

Pavel’s father is called Valery Durov and he was a professor of philology. He moved from St. Petersburg to Turin to teach.

And so also the young Pavel followed him. Only in 2001 did the Durov family return to Russia where Pavel continued his classical studies starting in Italy and then graduated in philology (like his father) at the University of St. Petersburg.

But the experience in Italy marks it.

A school teacher recalls that Pavel stood out from other students. “He had some special features that did not appeal to all of his classmates.”

He had a difficult relationship with part of them. And he was judged for his marked ambition at such a young age.

At the Turin school, for example, there was an educational competition and he wanted at all costs to win a medal.

He can’t get any awards in Italy. But his desire to do so emerges immediately as a young man.

After graduating he started an entrepreneurial activity. At 22, Pavel Durov started the Russian social network VKontakte (VK). It is 2006.

And this is where they begin to call it the Zuckerberg of Russia. And in fact he has suffered success and wealth. He should have had a downhill road instead he risks crashing.

Here’s what happened…

In early December 2011, after the elections to the State Duma, there were street protests in Russia.

Protesters organized and networked mainly through closed groups on Pavel’s social network, VKontakte.

So the FSB officials asked the VK administration to block these groups. But he refused. And once again, as in class, he finds himself on the side of the minority and the weakest forced to suffer.

He is disobedient and must flee Russia. But this will be his rebirth.