Courland Governorate

The Courland Governorate, initially organized in 1795–1796 as the Courland Viceroyalty , was a province (guberniya) and one of the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire. Its territory corresponded to the historical regions of Kurzeme, Zemgale and Sēlija in modern-day Latvia, as well as the coastal strip of Palanga in modern Lithuania.

The governorate was created in 1795 following the Third Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, when the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was incorporated into the Russian Empire. Like the neighbouring Baltic provinces, Courland retained regional administrative autonomy managed by the local Baltic German nobility through the Courland Landtag, and serfdom was abolished in 1817. In 1915, during World War I, the province was occupied by the German Army under Ober Ost. Russian rule formally ended with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, and the territory became part of the independent Republic of Latvia in November 1918.