The book is the main contribution of the prominent Russian Orientalist V. into Russian Buddhist studies and the first systematic presentation of the history of Buddhism and the development of Buddhist philosophical thought based on the study of sources in Chinese and Tibetan languages in the history of Russian religious studies; those sources became available to the researcher during his service in Beijing, at the Russian Spiritual Mission, in 1840s-1850s. According to V., “the sources that he used were much more extensive than those of other scholars” and allowed him “to embrace everything that one could want to know about Buddhism”. The survey was to be published in three volumes; however, only the first and the third parts were printed. Part 1 contains a systematic presentation of the doctrine of early Buddhism – Hinayana, Mahayana, and Buddhist ‘mysticism’ of Vajrayana. This theoretical part is completed with three appendices. In the first one, there are translations of the biographies of “famous Buddhist persons” (Ashvaghosha, Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, and Vasubandhu) made in ancient times into Chinese; in the second one, there is a translation from the Chinese religious and philosophical treatise by Vasumitra ‘A wheel affirming the difference of main opinions’ about Buddhist schools; in the third one, there is an exposition of the foundations of the doctrine of four Buddhist philosophical schools: Vaibhāṣika, Sautrāntika, Mahayana of Yogachara, and Madhyamaka.