diff --git a/django/core/urlresolvers.py b/django/core/urlresolvers.py
index adf89dac482..0aef3e91c3e 100644
--- a/django/core/urlresolvers.py
+++ b/django/core/urlresolvers.py
@@ -228,12 +228,14 @@ class RegexURLResolver(object):
             if args:
                 if len(args) != len(params):
                     continue
-                candidate =  result % dict(zip(params, args))
+                unicode_args = [force_unicode(val) for val in args]
+                candidate =  result % dict(zip(params, unicode_args))
             else:
                 if set(kwargs.keys()) != set(params):
                     continue
-                candidate = result % kwargs
-            if re.search('^%s' % pattern, candidate, re.UNICODE):
+                unicode_kwargs = dict([(k, force_unicode(v)) for (k, v) in kwargs.items()])
+                candidate = result % unicode_kwargs
+            if re.search(u'^%s' % pattern, candidate, re.UNICODE):
                 return candidate
         raise NoReverseMatch("Reverse for '%s' with arguments '%s' and keyword "
                 "arguments '%s' not found." % (lookup_view, args, kwargs))
diff --git a/django/utils/regex_helper.py b/django/utils/regex_helper.py
index 181285da4ff..545bf8899c9 100644
--- a/django/utils/regex_helper.py
+++ b/django/utils/regex_helper.py
@@ -13,12 +13,12 @@ ESCAPE_MAPPINGS = {
     "A": None,
     "b": None,
     "B": None,
-    "d": '0',
-    "D": "x",
-    "s": " ",
-    "S": "x",
-    "w": "x",
-    "W": "!",
+    "d": u"0",
+    "D": u"x",
+    "s": u" ",
+    "S": u"x",
+    "w": u"x",
+    "W": u"!",
     "Z": None,
 }
 
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ def normalize(pattern):
     try:
         ch, escaped = pattern_iter.next()
     except StopIteration:
-        return zip([''],  [[]])
+        return zip([u''],  [[]])
 
     try:
         while True:
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ def normalize(pattern):
                 result.append(ch)
             elif ch == '.':
                 # Replace "any character" with an arbitrary representative.
-                result.append("x")
+                result.append(u"x")
             elif ch == '|':
                 # FIXME: One day we'll should do this, but not in 1.0.
                 raise NotImplementedError
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ def normalize(pattern):
                     # A positional group
                     name = "_%d" % num_args
                     num_args += 1
-                    result.append(Group((("%%(%s)s" % name), name)))
+                    result.append(Group(((u"%%(%s)s" % name), name)))
                     walk_to_end(ch, pattern_iter)
                 else:
                     ch, escaped = pattern_iter.next()
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ def normalize(pattern):
                             name.append(ch)
                             ch, escaped = pattern_iter.next()
                         param = ''.join(name)
-                        result.append(Group((("%%(%s)s" % param), param)))
+                        result.append(Group(((u"%%(%s)s" % param), param)))
                         walk_to_end(ch, pattern_iter)
             elif ch in "*?+{":
                 # Quanitifers affect the previous item in the result list.
@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ def normalize(pattern):
         pass
     except NotImplementedError:
         # A case of using the disjunctive form. No results for you!
-        return zip([''],  [[]])
+        return zip([u''],  [[]])
 
     return zip(*flatten_result(result))
 
@@ -279,20 +279,20 @@ def flatten_result(source):
     Each of the two lists will be of the same length.
     """
     if source is None:
-        return [''], [[]]
+        return [u''], [[]]
     if isinstance(source, Group):
         if source[1] is None:
             params = []
         else:
             params = [source[1]]
         return [source[0]], [params]
-    result = ['']
+    result = [u'']
     result_args = [[]]
     pos = last = 0
     for pos, elt in enumerate(source):
         if isinstance(elt, basestring):
             continue
-        piece = ''.join(source[last:pos])
+        piece = u''.join(source[last:pos])
         if isinstance(elt, Group):
             piece += elt[0]
             param = elt[1]
@@ -320,7 +320,7 @@ def flatten_result(source):
             result = new_result
             result_args = new_args
     if pos >= last:
-        piece = ''.join(source[last:])
+        piece = u''.join(source[last:])
         for i in range(len(result)):
             result[i] += piece
     return result, result_args
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/templates/tests.py b/tests/regressiontests/templates/tests.py
index 2cfc18916ff..c69e7cdd1b0 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/templates/tests.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/templates/tests.py
@@ -194,6 +194,7 @@ class Templates(unittest.TestCase):
                     output = self.render(test_template, vals)
                 except Exception, e:
                     if e.__class__ != result:
+                        raise
                         failures.append("Template test (TEMPLATE_STRING_IF_INVALID='%s'): %s -- FAILED. Got %s, exception: %s" % (invalid_str, name, e.__class__, e))
                     continue
                 if output != result:
@@ -899,6 +900,8 @@ class Templates(unittest.TestCase):
             'url05': (u'{% url метка_оператора v %}', {'v': u'Ω'}, '/url_tag/%D0%AE%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B4/%CE%A9/'),
             'url06': (u'{% url метка_оператора_2 tag=v %}', {'v': u'Ω'}, '/url_tag/%D0%AE%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B4/%CE%A9/'),
             'url07': (u'{% url regressiontests.templates.views.client2 tag=v %}', {'v': u'Ω'}, '/url_tag/%D0%AE%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B4/%CE%A9/'),
+            'url08': (u'{% url метка_оператора v %}', {'v': 'Ω'}, '/url_tag/%D0%AE%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B4/%CE%A9/'),
+            'url09': (u'{% url метка_оператора_2 tag=v %}', {'v': 'Ω'}, '/url_tag/%D0%AE%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B4/%CE%A9/'),
 
             # Failures
             'url-fail01': ('{% url %}', {}, template.TemplateSyntaxError),