diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index b85de5060c8..b3d21f89156 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -780,6 +780,8 @@ Tools/Demos
 Extension Modules
 -----------------
 
+- Issue #12221: Replace pyexpat.__version__ with the Python version.
+
 - Issue #12051: Fix segfault in json.dumps() while encoding highly-nested
   objects using the C accelerations.
 
diff --git a/Modules/pyexpat.c b/Modules/pyexpat.c
index 4ef09de1bab..1cf699b9c63 100644
--- a/Modules/pyexpat.c
+++ b/Modules/pyexpat.c
@@ -1622,26 +1622,6 @@ static struct PyMethodDef pyexpat_methods[] = {
 PyDoc_STRVAR(pyexpat_module_documentation,
 "Python wrapper for Expat parser.");
 
-/* Return a Python string that represents the version number without the
- * extra cruft added by revision control, even if the right options were
- * given to the "cvs export" command to make it not include the extra
- * cruft.
- */
-static PyObject *
-get_version_string(void)
-{
-    static char *rcsid = "$Revision$";
-    char *rev = rcsid;
-    int i = 0;
-
-    while (!isdigit(Py_CHARMASK(*rev)))
-        ++rev;
-    while (rev[i] != ' ' && rev[i] != '\0')
-        ++i;
-
-    return PyUnicode_FromStringAndSize(rev, i);
-}
-
 /* Initialization function for the module */
 
 #ifndef MODULE_NAME
@@ -1682,6 +1662,7 @@ MODULE_INITFUNC(void)
     PyObject *errors_module;
     PyObject *modelmod_name;
     PyObject *model_module;
+    PyObject *version;
     PyObject *sys_modules;
     PyObject *tmpnum, *tmpstr;
     PyObject *codes_dict;
@@ -1718,7 +1699,10 @@ MODULE_INITFUNC(void)
     Py_INCREF(&Xmlparsetype);
     PyModule_AddObject(m, "XMLParserType", (PyObject *) &Xmlparsetype);
 
-    PyModule_AddObject(m, "__version__", get_version_string());
+    version = PyUnicode_FromString(PY_VERSION);
+    if (!version)
+        return;
+    PyModule_AddObject(m, "__version__", version);
     PyModule_AddStringConstant(m, "EXPAT_VERSION",
                                (char *) XML_ExpatVersion());
     {