The district was eponymously named for its administrative center, Aleksandropol (present-day Gyumri), which at the time was a major railway hub of the Russian South Caucasus.

After the Ottoman evacuation which was overseen by Mehmed Alfa, rubble cluttered the streets, homes had been looted and hundreds of thousands of animals were taken away, thus depriving the district of its ability to produce agricultural output.

[7] After Alexandropol and its peripheries had been incorporated into Armenia, some 60,000 Armenians refugees exiled from the Kars Oblast gathered in the city, sheltering in the old Russian army barracks as they awaited permission to cross the Arpachay (Akhuryan) river to return to their homes.

[8] During the Armenian-Turkish war, the city was again occupied by Turkish forces on 7 November 1920 and served as the place of negotiations between General Kâzım Karabekir and a delegation of the Armenian government led by Prime Minister Simon Vratsian.

[9][10] Some time after the establishment of Soviet power in Armenia, the district and city of Alexandropol were renamed to Leninakan in honor of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin.