Historian and architecture expert William Brumfield discovers the soaring beauty of the Russian north’s remarkable churches. Kizhi Island, church ensemble (pogost). West view from Lake Onega. From left: Church of the Transfiguration, bell tower, Church of the Intercession. July 13, 1993The forests of northern Russia between Lake Ladoga and the White Sea were once dotted with ensembles of log churches. In the summer of 1909, Russian photographer and chemist Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky conducted an expedition along the Mariinsky Waterway System, linking St. Petersburg with the Volga River basin. The first major component of the system was the Mariinsky Canal, which connected...