diff --git a/Lib/distutils/cygwinccompiler.py b/Lib/distutils/cygwinccompiler.py
index 94b8b86b6d7..0101bae5b92 100644
--- a/Lib/distutils/cygwinccompiler.py
+++ b/Lib/distutils/cygwinccompiler.py
@@ -108,6 +108,7 @@ def __init__ (self, verbose=0, dry_run=0, force=0):
         # XXX optimization, warnings etc. should be customizable.
         self.set_executables(compiler='gcc -mcygwin -O -Wall',
                              compiler_so='gcc -mcygwin -mdll -O -Wall',
+                             compiler_cxx='g++ -mcygwin -O -Wall',
                              linker_exe='gcc -mcygwin',
                              linker_so=('%s -mcygwin %s' %
                                         (self.linker_dll, shared_option)))
@@ -295,6 +296,7 @@ def __init__ (self,
 
         self.set_executables(compiler='gcc -mno-cygwin -O -Wall',
                              compiler_so='gcc -mno-cygwin -mdll -O -Wall',
+                             compiler_cxx='g++ -mno-cygwin -O -Wall',
                              linker_exe='gcc -mno-cygwin',
                              linker_so='%s -mno-cygwin %s %s'
                                         % (self.linker_dll, shared_option,
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 7584d456fd1..35a9c19cbcd 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -322,6 +322,9 @@ Extension modules
 Library
 -------
 
+- Fixed #877165: distutils now picks the right C++ compiler command
+  on cygwin and mingw32.
+
 - urllib.urlopen().readline() now handles HTTP/0.9 correctly.
 
 - refactored site.py into functions.  Also wrote regression tests for the