diff --git a/Objects/object.c b/Objects/object.c
index bb18d47..2665d21 100644
--- a/Objects/object.c
+++ b/Objects/object.c
@@ -763,6 +763,7 @@
       We make the hash of the empty string be 0, rather than using
       (prefix ^ suffix), since this slightly obfuscates the hash secret
     */
+    assert(_Py_HashSecret_Initialized);
     if (len == 0) {
         return 0;
     }