diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index c0fd4f6942..82af7fc602 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
  * Disable reloading of GossipingPropertyFileSnitch (CASSANDRA-9474)
  * Verify tables in pseudo-system keyspaces at startup (CASSANDRA-10761)
 Merged from 2.1:
+ * cqlsh fails to decode utf-8 characters for text typed columns (CASSANDRA-10875)
  * Log error when stream session fails (CASSANDRA-9294)
  * Fix bugs in commit log archiving startup behavior (CASSANDRA-10593)
  * (cqlsh) further optimise COPY FROM (CASSANDRA-9302)
diff --git a/bin/cqlsh.py b/bin/cqlsh.py
index 427fc29c08..8469836482 100644
--- a/bin/cqlsh.py
+++ b/bin/cqlsh.py
@@ -738,6 +738,8 @@ class Shell(cmd.Cmd):
         self.session.max_trace_wait = max_trace_wait
         if encoding is None:
             encoding = locale.getpreferredencoding()
+            if encoding is None:
+                encoding = 'utf-8'
         self.encoding = encoding
         self.output_codec = codecs.lookup(encoding)
 
@@ -1035,7 +1037,7 @@ class Shell(cmd.Cmd):
 
     def get_input_line(self, prompt=''):
         if self.tty:
-            self.lastcmd = raw_input(prompt)
+            self.lastcmd = raw_input(prompt).decode(self.encoding)
             line = self.lastcmd + '\n'
         else:
             self.lastcmd = self.stdin.readline()