diff --git a/django/__init__.py b/django/__init__.py
index 20ca23496c4..85cf02c9a4d 100644
--- a/django/__init__.py
+++ b/django/__init__.py
@@ -1,5 +1,11 @@
+import datetime
+import os
+import subprocess
+
+
 VERSION = (1, 5, 0, 'alpha', 0)
 
+
 def get_version(version=None):
     """Derives a PEP386-compliant version number from VERSION."""
     if version is None:
@@ -17,14 +23,31 @@ def get_version(version=None):
 
     sub = ''
     if version[3] == 'alpha' and version[4] == 0:
-        # At the toplevel, this would cause an import loop.
-        from django.utils.version import get_svn_revision
-        svn_revision = get_svn_revision()[4:]
-        if svn_revision != 'unknown':
-            sub = '.dev%s' % svn_revision
+        git_changeset = get_git_changeset()
+        if git_changeset:
+            sub = '.dev%s' % git_changeset
 
     elif version[3] != 'final':
         mapping = {'alpha': 'a', 'beta': 'b', 'rc': 'c'}
         sub = mapping[version[3]] + str(version[4])
 
     return main + sub
+
+
+def get_git_changeset():
+    """Returns a numeric identifier of the latest git changeset.
+
+    The result is the UTC timestamp of the changeset in YYYYMMDDHHMMSS format.
+    This value isn't guaranteed to be unique but collisions are very unlikely,
+    so it's sufficient for generating the development version numbers.
+    """
+    repo_dir = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
+    git_show = subprocess.Popen('git show --pretty=format:%ct --quiet HEAD',
+            stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE,
+            shell=True, cwd=repo_dir, universal_newlines=True)
+    timestamp = git_show.communicate()[0].partition('\n')[0]
+    try:
+        timestamp = datetime.datetime.utcfromtimestamp(int(timestamp))
+    except ValueError:
+        return None
+    return timestamp.strftime('%Y%m%d%H%M%S')
diff --git a/django/utils/version.py b/django/utils/version.py
deleted file mode 100644
index cb8623b1036..00000000000
--- a/django/utils/version.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,41 +0,0 @@
-import django
-import re
-
-def get_svn_revision(path=None):
-    """
-    Returns the SVN revision in the form SVN-XXXX,
-    where XXXX is the revision number.
-
-    Returns SVN-unknown if anything goes wrong, such as an unexpected
-    format of internal SVN files.
-
-    If path is provided, it should be a directory whose SVN info you want to
-    inspect. If it's not provided, this will use the root django/ package
-    directory.
-    """
-    rev = None
-    if path is None:
-        path = django.__path__[0]
-    entries_path = '%s/.svn/entries' % path
-
-    try:
-        entries = open(entries_path, 'r').read()
-    except IOError:
-        pass
-    else:
-        # Versions >= 7 of the entries file are flat text.  The first line is
-        # the version number. The next set of digits after 'dir' is the revision.
-        if re.match('(\d+)', entries):
-            rev_match = re.search('\d+\s+dir\s+(\d+)', entries)
-            if rev_match:
-                rev = rev_match.groups()[0]
-        # Older XML versions of the file specify revision as an attribute of
-        # the first entries node.
-        else:
-            from xml.dom import minidom
-            dom = minidom.parse(entries_path)
-            rev = dom.getElementsByTagName('entry')[0].getAttribute('revision')
-
-    if rev:
-        return u'SVN-%s' % rev
-    return u'SVN-unknown'
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/version/tests.py b/tests/regressiontests/version/tests.py
index 1a67483c1f0..9b849ee4ba2 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/version/tests.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/version/tests.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ class VersionTests(TestCase):
     def test_development(self):
         ver_tuple = (1, 4, 0, 'alpha', 0)
         # This will return a different result when it's run within or outside
-        # of a SVN checkout: 1.4.devNNNNN or 1.4.
+        # of a git clone: 1.4.devYYYYMMDDHHMMSS or 1.4.
         ver_string = get_version(ver_tuple)
         self.assertRegexpMatches(ver_string, r'1\.4(\.dev\d+)?')