[5] Konstantin Glinka was born on June 23 (July 5), 1867 (sometimes indicated on August 1 (Julian calendar)), in the village of Koptevo, Dukhovshchinsky Uyezd, Smolensk province, Russian Empire.

[8] Upon returning home to Leningrad from the First International Soil Congress to the USA in 1927, he fell ill and died on November 2, 1927.

He organized research in Smolensk, Novgorod (early 1890s), Pskov (1898-1899) and Voronezh (1899, 1913) provinces.In 1890 he was appointed curator of the mineralogical collection at the University.

[10] In 1896 he completed his Master's Thesis: "Glauconite, its origin, chemical composition and nature of weathering.

From this point in his career, Glinka became increasingly involved in the international community of soil scientists.

[5] In 1911 he moved to Saint Petersburg, where he opened a private docent course in soil science at the University.

Glinka became very influential resulting in wide distribution of the ideas of the Russian school of soil science.

[5] In 1922 he was appointed director and organizer of the Petrograd (later Leningrad) Agricultural Institute and professor of soil science.

In the summer of 1927 K. D. Glinka led the Soviet delegation to the First International Congress of Soil Scientists in Washington.

From 1889 to 1927 Konstantin Glinka wrote about 100 scientific papers on soil science, mineralogy and geology in Russian, German, French and Italian.