Nina Aleksandrovna was a descendant of the Benois family, a familiar name in art history.

Glazunov's success at the International Competition of Young Artists in Prague prompted the opening of his first single exhibition in Moscow in 1957.

Soon after in the 1960s, he traveled to Italy for the first time to paint the portraits of many famous actors and actress, including Gina Lollobrigida and Anita Ekberg.

He also painted portraits of many political leaders, including Indira Gandhi, Leonid Brezhnev, Urho Kekkonen, Yury Luzhkov and Andrei Gromyko.

Together with Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov he gathered signatures of prominent scientific and cultural figures under a letter of protest that was sent to the Politburo.

[5] Glazunov was one of the main advocates behind the restoration of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and one of the co-founders of the All-Russian Society for Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments (VOOPIiK).

[8] Illustrations for F. Dostoyevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov: A minor planet, 3616 Glazunov, discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Zhuravleva in 1984, is named after him.