Mikoyan was born in Armenia and educated in a seminary. At the age of twenty, he joined the Bolshevik Party and became a leader of the revolutionary movement in the Caucasus. In 1918, he was arrested by interventionist British troops in Baku. After his release, he continued his Party work, rising in the ranks.

He became a member of the Central Committee in 1923, and became People's Commissar for external and internal trade in 1926. In 1935, he was elected to the Politburo. In 1942 he became a member of the State Defense Committee, and in 1946, vice chairman of the Council of Ministers. He later held different posts in the field of trade, and made a number of state visits to the U.S, Japan, and Mexico. He attended the funeral of U.S. President Kennedy in 1963.