The Origin of Telegram and Pavel Durov's Background

Pavel Durov, the mastermind behind Telegram, was born in the Soviet Union in 1984 and later moved to Italy before returning to Russia. Growing up in a highly intellectual and competitive environment, Pavel and his brother excelled in mathematics and programming. He established VK, a social networking platform, which became immensely popular and competed with Facebook. His decision to stick to his principles of free speech led to tensions with the Russian government and eventually led him to sell his stake and step down from VK.