Pugo was born in Kalinin, Russian SFSR (now Tver, Russia) into a family of Latvian communists.

His father, Karl Janovich Pugo, was a participant in the October Revolution and the Civil War as a member of the Latvian Riflemen.

[1] Pugo graduated from Riga Polytechnical Institute in 1960 and worked in various Komsomol, Communist Party and Soviet government positions, both in Latvia and Moscow.

Pugo also served as chairman of the Central Control Commission of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1989 to 1991.

[2] He was contacted by the RSFSR prosecution for a meeting and he shot himself minutes after the phone call.