diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 0f4d90ee463..d81de709981 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -778,6 +778,9 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #6865: Fix reference counting issue in the initialization of the pwd
+  module.
+
 - Issue #3741: DISTUTILS_USE_SDK set causes msvc9compiler.py to raise an
   exception.
 
diff --git a/Modules/pwdmodule.c b/Modules/pwdmodule.c
index a271c5a82eb..2865dc6bf41 100644
--- a/Modules/pwdmodule.c
+++ b/Modules/pwdmodule.c
@@ -194,6 +194,7 @@ initpwd(void)
 	Py_INCREF((PyObject *) &StructPwdType);
 	PyModule_AddObject(m, "struct_passwd", (PyObject *) &StructPwdType);
 	/* And for b/w compatibility (this was defined by mistake): */
+        Py_INCREF((PyObject *) &StructPwdType);
 	PyModule_AddObject(m, "struct_pwent", (PyObject *) &StructPwdType);
 	initialized = 1;
 }