diff --git a/Lib/collections.py b/Lib/collections.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..0d9254c9a74
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Lib/collections.py
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+__all__ = ['deque', 'defaultdict']
+
+from _collections import deque, defaultdict
diff --git a/Modules/collectionsmodule.c b/Modules/_collectionsmodule.c
similarity index 99%
rename from Modules/collectionsmodule.c
rename to Modules/_collectionsmodule.c
index f98bd490323..c37f9ace157 100644
--- a/Modules/collectionsmodule.c
+++ b/Modules/_collectionsmodule.c
@@ -1337,11 +1337,11 @@ PyDoc_STRVAR(module_doc,
 ");
 
 PyMODINIT_FUNC
-initcollections(void)
+init_collections(void)
 {
 	PyObject *m;
 
-	m = Py_InitModule3("collections", NULL, module_doc);
+	m = Py_InitModule3("_collections", NULL, module_doc);
 	if (m == NULL)
 		return;
 
diff --git a/PC/config.c b/PC/config.c
index a9a280ded10..e1b52a4f232 100644
--- a/PC/config.c
+++ b/PC/config.c
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ extern void initxxsubtype(void);
 extern void initzipimport(void);
 extern void init_random(void);
 extern void inititertools(void);
-extern void initcollections(void);
+extern void init_collections(void);
 extern void init_heapq(void);
 extern void init_bisect(void);
 extern void init_symtable(void);
@@ -124,7 +124,7 @@ struct _inittab _PyImport_Inittab[] = {
         {"_heapq", init_heapq},
 	{"_lsprof", init_lsprof},
 	{"itertools", inititertools},
-        {"collections", initcollections},
+        {"_collections", init_collections},
 	{"_symtable", init_symtable},
 	{"mmap", initmmap},
 	{"_csv", init_csv},
diff --git a/PCbuild/pythoncore.vcproj b/PCbuild/pythoncore.vcproj
index 9f59cf42e3e..50e51f7aeed 100644
--- a/PCbuild/pythoncore.vcproj
+++ b/PCbuild/pythoncore.vcproj
@@ -458,7 +458,7 @@
 			RelativePath="..\Objects\codeobject.c">
 		</File>
 		<File
-			RelativePath="..\Modules\collectionsmodule.c">
+			RelativePath="..\Modules\_collectionsmodule.c">
 		</File>
 		<File
 			RelativePath="..\Python\compile.c">
diff --git a/PCbuild8/pythoncore.vcproj b/PCbuild8/pythoncore.vcproj
index f3358792fb6..16a250e5fce 100644
--- a/PCbuild8/pythoncore.vcproj
+++ b/PCbuild8/pythoncore.vcproj
@@ -1381,7 +1381,7 @@
 			>
 		</File>
 		<File
-			RelativePath="..\Modules\collectionsmodule.c"
+			RelativePath="..\Modules\_collectionsmodule.c"
 			>
 		</File>
 		<File
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 32ea77aeed2..98d0e975214 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -370,7 +370,7 @@ class PyBuildExt(build_ext):
         # fast iterator tools implemented in C
         exts.append( Extension("itertools", ["itertoolsmodule.c"]) )
         # high-performance collections
-        exts.append( Extension("collections", ["collectionsmodule.c"]) )
+        exts.append( Extension("_collections", ["_collectionsmodule.c"]) )
         # bisect
         exts.append( Extension("_bisect", ["_bisectmodule.c"]) )
         # heapq