Vitebsk Governorate (Russian: Витебская губерния, romanized: Vitebskaya guberniya, Belarusian: Віцебская губерня, romanized: Vitsyebskaya hubernya) was an administrative-territorial unit (guberniya) of the Russian Empire, with the seat of governorship in Vitebsk.

On January 1, 1919, the Provisional Revolutionary Government issued a manifesto proclaiming the formation of the Socialist Soviet Republic of Belarus (SSRB) within the RSFSR, which included the Vitebsk, Grodno, Mogilev, Minsk and Smolensk provinces.

On January 16, 1919 by the decision of the Central Committee of the RCP the Vitebsk, Mogilev and Smolensk provinces were returned into direct subordination to the RSFSR.

By the decision of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR of February 4, 1924 "On the transfer of the areas with a predominantly Belarusian population to Belarus" and by the resolution of the VI All-Belarusian extraordinary congress of the Soviets of the BSSR of March 13, 1924, the Vitebsk Polotsk, Sennensk, Surazh, Gorodok, Drissen, Lepel and Orsha counties of the Vitebsk province were transferred to the BSSR , while Sebezh, Nevelsk and Velizhsk counties remained in the RSFSR.

93 by the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR to the Governorate of Livonia, later becoming a part of the Latvian Soviet autonomy body of Iskolat.

Following the Latvian War of Independence, in 1920 the area became a part of the Republic of Latvia under the Latvian–Soviet Peace Treaty.

Most of it was transferred to Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, which at the time had districts as the first-level administrative division.

The surface is undulating, the most elevated strip stretches from the Pskov Gubernia to Nevel and Gorodok (up to 952 feet high), then along the watershed of the Western Dvina and Dnieper; the western part (the Dvina, Lyutsinsk and Rezhitsa districts) is lowland; many lakes (about 2500), swamps and forests; the soil is low fertile, clay and sandy loam.

West of the country is milder than east; West Dvina near Dvinsk is ice free 247 days a year In 1928, the American composer Aaron Copland composed the piano trio Vitebsk: Study on a Jewish Theme, and the work was premiered in 1929.