He recalls how on August 27, 2024, he found himself in an unexpected situation – detained in a Paris police station for three days without access to devices or the internet.
While undergoing a lengthy interrogation session, Durov asked his lawyer whether his girlfriend, Julia, would also be questioned. The lawyer hesitated before revealing an unexpected piece of news: Julia was pregnant.
This revelation caught Durov off guard, but he remained composed. Despite the overwhelming circumstances – being held in a foreign country with no clear idea of when he would be released – Durov tried to process the news as best as he could. He later discovered that the police had been unsure of how to break the news of Julia’s pregnancy to him, given the tense atmosphere.
The following day, Durov was released late in the evening and reunited with Julia on the rooftop terrace of her residence. As he arrived, fireworks lit up the sky for the opening ceremony of the Paralympics, but the mood was far from celebratory.
During his detention, Julia had faced immense pressure. Some bloggers had spread baseless rumors, claiming that she was a “Mossad agent” and accusing her of revealing Durov’s flight details, which allegedly led to his arrest at the Paris airport.
With her devices confiscated, she couldn’t access her accounts on Telegram and Instagram for weeks. Her going radio silent on social media provoked even more speculation. Cyber-bullying aimed at her kept reaching new highs. Julia stood strong. But, unlike me, she wasn’t used to hostility. She is not made for war. Two days ago, she was visiting the doctor who monitored her pregnancy. I was in the middle of my 12-hour work day when Julia sent me (crying emojis) from the doctor’s office. I instantly knew what was wrong.
– Pavel Durov on his Telegram channel, October 2024
In other words, a miscarriage happened.
This period of personal turmoil for Durov brought to mind his earlier challenges, including one of his most pivotal moments in 2006 when he embarked on a journey that would define his career. After graduating from Saint Petersburg University that summer, Durov set an ambitious goal: to create a social network for students and graduates within four weeks. This would become VKontakte (VK), a platform that would go on to revolutionize social media in Russia.
At just 22 years old, Durov was already a skilled coder, having built web-based games as early as age 12 and taught programming to older students at summer camps by age 13. However, even with this experience, he admitted that his goal of building a fully functioning social network in such a short time frame was overconfident. Rather than relying on pre-built modules, Durov decided to create everything from scratch – profiles, private messaging, photo albums, and search functions.
In September 2006, Durov devoted himself to coding for 20 hours a day, stopping only for a single meal of pasta and cheese and then sleeping for 10 hours before starting again. His life revolved around this project.
Even though he initially aimed to complete the project in four weeks, it took six weeks to launch a beta version of VKontakte. Despite the delay, the results exceeded expectations. Users flocked to the platform, and VK quickly became the go-to social network for university students in Russia.
By December 2006, VK had attracted thousands of users, growing at a rapid pace. A few months later, Durov hired another developer to help manage the platform’s explosive growth. Within seven years, VK had over 100 million monthly users. However, by 2014, Durov’s time with VK came to an abrupt end when the company’s board ousted him, prompting him to leave and focus on building Telegram.
This experience of single-handedly building VK in 2006 had a lasting impact on Durov’s approach to business and problem-solving. It reinforced his belief that every complex task is simply a collection of smaller, manageable parts:
I also learned that there are no complex tasks in this world – only many small ones that look scary when combined. Split a big task into smaller parts, organize them in the right sequence – and “you’ll get through”.
– Pavel Durov on his Telegram channel, October 2024
Well, life, as great as is it, can be cruel and unpredictable – not just to mere mortals like us, but to the rich and famous as well…
