In 1783, shortly after seven of his children had died within a short time of each other, she bore him a son, who was adopted by one of his friends, a member of the petty nobility, Bunin's daughter standing as godmother to the child, and his wife receiving it into the family, and rearing it like a son, in memory of her dead, only son.

This baby was the future poet Zhukovsky.

When Bunin died, he bequeathed money to the child, and his widow and daughters gave him the best of educations.

Zhukovsky began to print bits of melancholy poetry while he was still at the university preparatory school.

When he became closely acquainted with Karamzin (1803-1804), he came under the latter's influence so strongly that the stamp remained upon all the productions of the first half of his career, the favorite "Svyetlana" (Amaryllis), written in 1811, being a specimen.