Courland Governorate, also known as the Province of Courland or Governorate of Kurland, and known from 1795 to 1796 as the Viceroyalty of Courland, was an administrative-territorial unit (guberniya) and one of the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire. Its area roughly corresponded to Kurzeme, Zemgale and Sēlija of modern-day Latvia.

The governorate was created in 1795 out of the territory of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, which was incorporated into the Russian Empire as the Viceroyalty of Courland with its capital at Mitau (now Jelgava) following the third partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

In 1915, during the World War I, Courland was occupied by the German Empire and included into the Ober Ost military administration. While the local Baltic German nobility was cooperating with the German administration, several Latvian leaders from Courland retreated to the neighboring governorates of Livonia and Estonia, still held by Russian forces. After the Russian Revolution in March 1917, those Latvian leaders formed the Provisional Land Council of Courland that met at 27 April 1917 in the Estonian city of Tartu, and was recognized by the Russian Provisional Government as the representative body of the occupied Courland Governorate. At the same time, the Provisional Government in Petrograd appointed Latvian politician Jānis Čakste as the commissar of Courland, a newly created post that replaced the old office of governor. Since Courland was under German control, Čakste and the Provisional Land Council focused their activities on assisting war refugees who fled from Courland, mainly to Livonia and Estonia.

In September–October 1917, German forces advanced from Couland and took the city of Riga and the main Baltic islands, and in November 1917, the Bolshevik Revolution broke out in Russia. Already on 16 November 1917, the Latvian Provisional National Council was created in Valka (Livonia) on 30 November, and it proclaimed Latvia as an autonomous province within the ethnographic boundaries of the Latvian people that included Courland. On 15 January 1918, the same body proclaimed Latvia as independent republic.

Already in February 1918, German forces proceeded further and occupied the entirety of Livonia and Estonia, but Soviet Russia continued to claim sovereignty over all occupied regions, including Courland, until the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918, when it accepted the loss of the Courland Governorate. On 8 March 1918, representatives of the Courlandian Baltic Germans met in Jelgava (Mitau) and proclaimed the creation of an independent state, named the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia in reference to the historical duchy of the same name. They offered the Courlandian ducal throne to the German emperor, thus trying to establish Courland as a client state of the German Empire. Already on March 15, Germany recognized the newly proclaimed state, that in reality existed only formally since all effective power over the region was still held by German military administration of Ober Ost. On 5 November 1918, Courland was united with neighboring Livonia–Estonia to form the United Baltic Duchy, but that political project failed, since on 18 November 1918, the Republic of Latvia was proclaimed, thus uniting all Latvian lands, including Courland.

The governorate was bounded in the north by the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Riga and the Governorate of Livonia; west by the Baltic Sea; south by the Vilna Governorate and Prussia and east by the Vitebsk Governorate and Minsk Governorate. The population in 1846 was estimated at 553,300.

It was situated between 55°41' and 57°451⁄2' N. Of its total border of 1,260 versts (1,344 km), the sea border is 320 versts (341 km). The border with Prussia is only 6 versts (6.4 km) long and lacks natural boundaries.

The surface area of the province is 26,112 square versts (29,716 km²).