diff --git a/Objects/unicodeobject.c b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
index 2f80e59..1df38e8 100644
--- a/Objects/unicodeobject.c
+++ b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
@@ -6692,6 +6692,7 @@
     register Py_UNICODE *p;
     register long x;
 
+    assert(_Py_HashSecret_Initialized);
     if (self->hash != -1)
         return self->hash;
     len = PyUnicode_GET_SIZE(self);