U.S. Marine soldiers from 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, Battalion landing team deployed from Okinawa, Japan, participate in the U.S. and South Korean Marines joint landing operation at Pohang seashore on March 29, 2012 in Pohang, South Korea. Though South Korean has remained technically at war with North Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953, the tension of Korean Peninsula has again raised as Pyongyang's new leader Kim Jong-Eun administration announced to launch a “Satellite” between April 12 to 16. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Hardy Dutch swimmers brave the icy North Sea on January 1, 2012 in Scheveningen, Netherlands. A record number of 10,000 people took the plunge in this year's traditional New Year's dip. The high turnout was attributed to the mild weather with a sea temperature of 8 degrees compared to 4 degrees last year. (Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)

Festival-goers take a bath in a mud pool during the 20th Boryeong Mud Festival on Daecheon beach in Boryeong City, some 190 kilometers west of Seoul, South Korea, 22 July 2017. Tourists flock to the area to experience the beneficial properties of the Boryeong mud, as well as for a variety of entertainment events. The festival runs from 21 until 30 July. (Photo by Jeon Heon-Kyun/EPA/EFE)

A woman surrounded by South Korean national flags set up to celebrate the 66th Independence Day on August 15, 2011 in Seoul, South Korea. Korea was liberated from Japan's 35-year colonial rule in 1945. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

A South Korean soldier wear North Korea's military uniform, acting as North Korean soldier during an anti-terror and anti-chemical drill session held as part of the 2011 Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) event on August 17, 2011 in Seoul, South Korea. The 11-day UGC, which features drills including the handling of chemical and biological attacks, is a regular joint exercise between US and South Korean troops to prepare for potential emergencies on the Korean Peninsula. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

North Korean defectors, now living in South Korea, prepare to release balloons carrying propaganda leaflets denouncing North Korea's late leader Kim Jong-Il at Imjingak, near the Demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating South and North Korea on December 28, 2011 in Paju, South Korea. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

A chef cooks raw dog meat at a restaurant on July 5, 2005 in Gwacheon, South Korea. Dog meat is a traditional dish in Korea dating back to the Samkuk period (period of the three kingdoms BC 57 – AD 668). Although many recipes existed historically for dog meat, now chefs only make soups, or dishes using boiled or roasted meat. Koreans traditionally eat dog meat on the hottest day of the summer, for it's reputed benefits of virility, invigoration and health. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

While communism, collectivism, worms, dry rot and casual looting failed to destroy the majestic wooden churches of Russia, it may be ordinary neglect that finally does them in. Dwindled now to several hundred remaining examples, these glories of vernacular architecture lie scattered amid the vastness of the world’s largest country. Just over a decade ago, Richard Davies, a British architectural photographer, struck out on a mission to record the fragile and poetic structures. Austerely beautiful and haunting, “Wooden Churches: Traveling in the Russian North” (White Sea Publishing; $132) is the result. Covering thousands of miles, Mr. Davies described how he and the writer Matilda Moreton tracked down the survivors from among the thousands of onion-domed structures built after Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988.