According to the Minister of Internal Affairs Count D.A. Tolstoy (1882-1889), that book ought to be recognized as ‘very useful’. The book is opened with a brief historical sketch on the Baikal Region traditionally inhabited by the Buryat and Tungus peoples, called by the author in the spirit of his time ‘Lamaites’ (‘followers of the Buddha's doctrine’) and ‘alien born’ (Inorodtsy). A special attention is paid to the issues of legal regulation of religious life in the region and social organization of its indigenous population. The book contains a survey of the “basic rules, nature, and significance of Buddhism” in relation to the earlier ‘Shamanism’, as well as a detailed list of “the government measures for setting Siberian lamas and their followers” in the period from the early eighteenth to the third quarter of the nineteenth century. Besides, the author  provides data on the training of ‘Lamai huvaraks’ (Buddhist novices), the history of Buddhist book printing in the Trans-Baikal Region, the peculiarities of Buddhist rituals and religious architecture. V. shared the view, typical for Orthodox missionaries of his time, on Buddhist doctrine as something “developing the superstitious prejudices of Inorodtsy” with the aim of “exploiting the common people”. His analysis of the measures taken by the Russian government to manage the spiritual life of Buddhists allowed him to conclude that “the Lamaites faith, having penetrated into Transbaikalia from Mongolia at the late seventeenth century, developed without hindrance”. At the same time, he considered it necessary to revise the 1853 Statute on the Lamaist Clergy in Eastern Siberia.