Pyatnitsky was a co-founder of the publishing company Znanie and one–time close associate of Maxim Gorky.

[1][2] Konstantin Pyatnitsky was born in the village of Kemtsy, Valdaysky Uyezd, Novgorod Governorate, to the family of a local priest.

After he graduated in 1888 from the Kazan University he moved to Saint Petersburg and joined the Committee for Literacy (1892–1895) and also the staff of Mir Bozhy magazine, where he worked from 1893 till 1896.

In 1919 he handed off 250 thousand book copies from the Znanye storehouses to the Bolshevik Ministry of Education.

In 1937 he published a book of memoirs called M. Gorky Back Home (М. Горький на родине).