diff --git a/Lib/distutils/ccompiler.py b/Lib/distutils/ccompiler.py
index 62506a6e6ff824..88a910c6810ffd 100644
--- a/Lib/distutils/ccompiler.py
+++ b/Lib/distutils/ccompiler.py
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ class (via the 'executables' class attribute), but most will have:
             self.set_executable(key, args[key])
 
     def set_executable(self, key, value):
-        if isinstance(value, str):
+        if isinstance(value, basestring):
             setattr(self, key, split_quoted(value))
         else:
             setattr(self, key, value)
diff --git a/Lib/distutils/tests/test_ccompiler.py b/Lib/distutils/tests/test_ccompiler.py
index 446eac2cda4e20..4976098b8d8027 100644
--- a/Lib/distutils/tests/test_ccompiler.py
+++ b/Lib/distutils/tests/test_ccompiler.py
@@ -24,6 +24,30 @@ def library_option(self, lib):
 
 class CCompilerTestCase(support.EnvironGuard, unittest.TestCase):
 
+    def test_set_executables(self):
+        class MyCCompiler(CCompiler):
+            executables = {'compiler': '', 'compiler_cxx': '', 'linker': ''}
+
+        compiler = MyCCompiler()
+
+        # set executable as list
+        compiler.set_executables(compiler=['env', 'OMPI_MPICC=clang', 'mpicc'])
+        self.assertEqual(compiler.compiler, ['env',
+                                             'OMPI_MPICC=clang',
+                                             'mpicc'])
+
+        # set executable as string
+        compiler.set_executables(compiler_cxx='env OMPI_MPICXX=clang++ mpicxx')
+        self.assertEqual(compiler.compiler_cxx, ['env',
+                                                 'OMPI_MPICXX=clang++',
+                                                 'mpicxx'])
+
+        # set executable as unicode string
+        compiler.set_executables(linker=u'env OMPI_MPICXX=clang++ mpiCC')
+        self.assertEqual(compiler.linker, [u'env',
+                                           u'OMPI_MPICXX=clang++',
+                                           u'mpiCC'])
+
     def test_gen_lib_options(self):
         compiler = FakeCompiler()
         libdirs = ['lib1', 'lib2']
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2017-11-07-19-12-25.bpo-31955.1DWu-S.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2017-11-07-19-12-25.bpo-31955.1DWu-S.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..62f24492a8556a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2017-11-07-19-12-25.bpo-31955.1DWu-S.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fix CCompiler.set_executable() of distutils to handle properly Unicode strings.