Derenik Demirchian (originally Demirchoghlian) was born on February 18, 1877, in Akhalkalaki in the region of Javakheti in southern Georgia, then a part of the Russian Empire.

Two years after finishing school, he moved to Ardahan (then a part of the Russian Empire, now in Turkey), where he continued his education under S. Ter-Meliksedekian.

[1] While at the seminary, he became familiar with world literature, reading authors such as Lermontov, Pushkin, Tolstoy, Goethe, Heine, Byron, and Shakespeare.

[1] Demirchian began his literary career as a poet, publishing his first poem, titled "Apagan" (The future), in the journal Taraz (Dress) in 1893.

According to S. Hovhannisian, the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907 marked a turning point in Demirchian's career, after which he focused on "becoming spiritually closer to the people."

[4] In Kevork Bardakjian's view, Demirchian succeeded in "creating a remarkably witty comedy" by elaborating on the simple plot of the folk tale.

[1] Several of Demirchian's plays from the 1930s, such as Fosforayin shogh (Phosphoric ray, 1932), Napoleon Korkotyan (1934) and Kaputan (1938) deal with the socio-economic transformations in the Soviet Union at that time.

In 1938, Demirchian wrote Yerkir hayreni (Fatherland), a drama about the 11th-century Armenian king Gagik II and his struggle with the Byzantines.

[4] Demirchian's most notable work is Vardanank (parts 1 and 2, 1943–46, revised ed., 1951), a monumental patriotic novel about the 5th-century Armenian Christian rebellion led by Vardan Mamikonian against Sasanian Iran.

[2] In the last years of his life, Demirchian worked on a novel about the inventor of the Armenian alphabet titled Mesrop Mashtots, which remained incomplete.