As the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of Armenia from 1921 to 1922, he is credited with rebuilding the Armenian republic at the beginning of Lenin's New Economic Policy (NEP).

[3] After the February Revolution of 1917, Miasnikian became a member of the Western Front's military committee, leading its Bolshevik faction together with Mikhail Frunze.

[1] Miasnikian engaged in negotiations with the rebels in Zangezur, offering a number of concessions in return for accepting Soviet authority in Armenia, but on June 3, 1921 the Kavbiuro (the Bolshevik Party's decision-making body in the Caucasus) resolved to suppress the rebellion.

[1] The resolution adopted at the Kavbiuro meeting on June 3 (at which Miasnikian was present) included a point which stated that Mountainous Karabakh should be declared a part of Armenia.

[1] However, there was disagreement from the Azerbaijani side, which insisted on leaving the final resolution of the status of Karabakh for future Kavbiuro meetings.

Six months later, Miasnikian told the First Congress of the Armenian Communist Party that Azerbaijan had threatened to cut off Armenia's supply of kerosene if they demanded Karabakh.

After the formation of the Transcaucasian SFSR in March 1922, Miasnikian held a number of leading positions in the federation's government, working from Tiflis.

[2] Miasnikian was killed in a mysterious plane crash on 22 March 1925, along with Solomon Mogilevsky, Georgi Atarbekov, the pilot and flight engineer.

[10] Anastas Mikoyan called for reviving the memory of Miasnikian, alongside the writers Raffi, Raphael Patkanian, and Yeghishe Charents, in his March 1954 speech in Yerevan.

[12] Several locations within the Soviet Union were named after him (including "Martuni", his nom de guerre): In Armenia, a city and two villages (in Gegharkunik and Armavir provinces); In Russia's Rostov Oblast, an Armenian-populated raion (district) is named after him; and until the disestablishment of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the town of Khojavend and its surrounding province were called Martuni.