In the US Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, a commissioned officer superior to a captain and inferior to a colonel. The equivalent rank in the US Navy is Lieutenant Commander[?]. The insignia for all four positions is a gold oak leaf.
... the bureaucrat Karenin. She is invited from her home in St Petersburg to Moscow to mediate the marital discord of her brother Stepan (Stiva) Oblonsky and his wife Darya ...