diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 5ccce4b..99c32b5 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@
 Core and Builtins
 -----------------
 
+- Issue #3683: Fix compilation when --without-threads is given.
+
 - Issue #3668: Fix a memory leak with the "s*" argument parser in
   PyArg_ParseTuple and friends, which occurred when the argument for "s*" 
   was correctly parsed but parsing of subsequent arguments failed.
@@ -52,8 +54,8 @@
 
 - Fixed two format strings in the _collections module.
 
-- #3703 _fileio.FileIO gave unhelpful error message when trying to open a
-   directory.
+- Issue #3703: _fileio.FileIO gave unhelpful error message when trying to open a
+  directory.
 
 Extension Modules
 -----------------
diff --git a/Python/import.c b/Python/import.c
index fd13154..781bb48 100644
--- a/Python/import.c
+++ b/Python/import.c
@@ -2029,7 +2029,7 @@
 	else {
 		PyErr_Clear();
 	}
-
+#ifdef WITH_THREAD
 	/* check the import lock
 	 * me might be -1 but I ignore the error here, the lock function
 	 * takes care of the problem */
@@ -2045,6 +2045,9 @@
 			     name);
 		return NULL;
 	}
+#else
+	return PyImport_ImportModule(name);
+#endif
 }
 
 /* Forward declarations for helper routines */