diff --git a/Doc/Makefile b/Doc/Makefile
index 46abe510c8d..c9f3ed69e39 100644
--- a/Doc/Makefile
+++ b/Doc/Makefile
@@ -28,8 +28,8 @@ help:
 	@echo "  coverage  to check documentation coverage for library and C API"
 	@echo "  dist      to create a \"dist\" directory with archived docs for download"
 
+# Note: if you update versions here, do the same in make.bat and README.txt
 checkout:
-	# Note: if you update versions here, do the same in make.bat and README.txt
 	@if [ ! -d tools/sphinx ]; then \
 	  echo "Checking out Sphinx..."; \
 	  svn checkout $(SVNROOT)/external/Sphinx-0.6.1/sphinx tools/sphinx; \
@@ -102,8 +102,8 @@ doctest: build
 
 pydoc-topics: BUILDER = pydoc-topics
 pydoc-topics: build
-	@echo "Building finished; now copy build/pydoc-topics/pydoc_topics.py " \
-	      "into the Lib/ directory"
+	@echo "Building finished; now copy build/pydoc-topics/topics.py " \
+	      "to Lib/pydoc_data/topics.py"
 
 htmlview: html
 	 $(PYTHON) -c "import webbrowser; webbrowser.open('build/html/index.html')"
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ dist:
 	(cd dist; zip -q -r -9 python-$(DISTVERSION)-docs-text.zip python-$(DISTVERSION)-docs-text)
 	rm -r dist/python-$(DISTVERSION)-docs-text
 	rm dist/python-$(DISTVERSION)-docs-text.tar
-	
+
 	# archive the A4 latex
 	-rm -r build/latex
 	make latex PAPER=a4
diff --git a/Doc/tools/sphinxext/pyspecific.py b/Doc/tools/sphinxext/pyspecific.py
index f00a8997524..402a9a18e53 100644
--- a/Doc/tools/sphinxext/pyspecific.py
+++ b/Doc/tools/sphinxext/pyspecific.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 
     Sphinx extension with Python doc-specific markup.
 
-    :copyright: 2008 by Georg Brandl.
+    :copyright: 2008, 2009 by Georg Brandl.
     :license: Python license.
 """
 
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ class PydocTopicsBuilder(Builder):
             self.topics[label] = writer.output
 
     def finish(self):
-        f = open(path.join(self.outdir, 'pydoc_topics.py'), 'w')
+        f = open(path.join(self.outdir, 'topics.py'), 'w')
         try:
             f.write('# Autogenerated by Sphinx on %s\n' % asctime())
             f.write('topics = ' + pformat(self.topics) + '\n')
diff --git a/Lib/pydoc.py b/Lib/pydoc.py
index 3afb9814d25..a70f01600cc 100755
--- a/Lib/pydoc.py
+++ b/Lib/pydoc.py
@@ -1533,11 +1533,11 @@ class Helper:
     # These dictionaries map a topic name to either an alias, or a tuple
     # (label, seealso-items).  The "label" is the label of the corresponding
     # section in the .rst file under Doc/ and an index into the dictionary
-    # in pydoc_topics.py.
+    # in pydoc_data/topics.py.
     #
     # CAUTION: if you change one of these dictionaries, be sure to adapt the
     #          list of needed labels in Doc/tools/sphinxext/pyspecific.py and
-    #          regenerate the pydoc_topics.py file by running
+    #          regenerate the pydoc_data/topics.py file by running
     #              make pydoc-topics
     #          in Doc/ and copying the output file into the Lib/ directory.
 
@@ -1821,11 +1821,11 @@ Here is a list of available topics.  Enter any topic name to get more help.
 
     def showtopic(self, topic, more_xrefs=''):
         try:
-            import pydoc_topics
+            import pydoc_data.topics
         except ImportError:
             self.output.write('''
 Sorry, topic and keyword documentation is not available because the
-module "pydoc_topics" could not be found.
+module "pydoc_data.topics" could not be found.
 ''')
             return
         target = self.topics.get(topic, self.keywords.get(topic))
@@ -1837,7 +1837,7 @@ module "pydoc_topics" could not be found.
 
         label, xrefs = target
         try:
-            doc = pydoc_topics.topics[label]
+            doc = pydoc_data.topics.topics[label]
         except KeyError:
             self.output.write('no documentation found for %s\n' % repr(topic))
             return
diff --git a/Lib/pydoc_data/__init__.py b/Lib/pydoc_data/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e69de29bb2d
diff --git a/Lib/pydoc_topics.py b/Lib/pydoc_data/topics.py
similarity index 100%
rename from Lib/pydoc_topics.py
rename to Lib/pydoc_data/topics.py