Development of oriental studies was followed at the end of the nineteenth century by the growing interest in Buddhist concepts and rituals among Russian intellectuals. Fashionable social fascination in Buddhism and pseudo-scientific concepts of “Buddhist mysteries,” astonished conservative Christians. Leading missionary spreading Christianity among the Transbaikalian Buddhists, archbishop of Irkutsk and Nerchinsk Veniamin (Blagonravov) argued that the idealized perception of Buddhism was merely a fashionable nonsense. He referred not only to his own knowledge and experience, but also to the scholarly research conducted by the Russian Orientalists. Veniamin’s intellectual adversary, philosopher Vladimir Victorovich Lesevich, supported a comprehensive and impartial evaluation of non-European traditions such as Buddhism. Debate considered also a semantic analysis of “real Buddhism” and practical missionary experience in the Transbaikal.