Poghos Bek-Pirumyan was born on 8 June 1856 in Nakhichevanik village of the Elisabethpol Governorate of the Russian Empire.
After Sovietization of Armenia in December 1920, about 1,000 officers of the First Republic of Armenia were arrested by the Bolshevik authorities, and were forced to walk from Yerevan to Alaverdi by foot (about 160 kilometers).