diff --git a/Modules/bz2module.c b/Modules/bz2module.c
index c664c2a8442..638f7fec2aa 100644
--- a/Modules/bz2module.c
+++ b/Modules/bz2module.c
@@ -1701,7 +1701,7 @@ BZ2Decomp_decompress(BZ2DecompObject *self, PyObject *args)
 	int datasize;
 	int bufsize = SMALLCHUNK;
 	long totalout;
-	PyObject *ret;
+	PyObject *ret = NULL;
 	bz_stream *bzs = &self->bzs;
 	int bzerror;