diff --git a/docs/changes.xml b/docs/changes.xml
index 07decb2a..2f68083d 100644
--- a/docs/changes.xml
+++ b/docs/changes.xml
@@ -37,6 +37,12 @@ Linux, and all uploaded certificate bundles were forgotten after restart.
 </para>
 </change>
 
+<change type="bugfix">
+<para>
+the Ruby module didn't respect user locale for defaults in the Encoding class.
+</para>
+</change>
+
 </changes>
 
 
diff --git a/src/ruby/nxt_ruby.c b/src/ruby/nxt_ruby.c
index 0aad887d..ca14af5b 100644
--- a/src/ruby/nxt_ruby.c
+++ b/src/ruby/nxt_ruby.c
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@
 
 #include NXT_RUBY_MOUNTS_H
 
+#include <locale.h>
+
 
 #define NXT_RUBY_RACK_API_VERSION_MAJOR  1
 #define NXT_RUBY_RACK_API_VERSION_MINOR  3
@@ -200,6 +202,8 @@ nxt_ruby_start(nxt_task_t *task, nxt_process_data_t *data)
 
     nxt_ruby_threads = c->threads;
 
+    setlocale(LC_CTYPE, "");
+
     RUBY_INIT_STACK
     ruby_init();
     ruby_options(2, argv);