Career
Avanesov was born to a peasant Armenian family in the historically Armenian Kars Oblast of the Russian Empire (in present-day Turkey). He joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1903. Initially he sided with the Mensheviks, moving to Bolshevik faction in 1914.
From 1907 to 1913 he lived in Switzerland, studying at the University of Zurich.
He was secretary of the RSDLP group in Davos.
