diff --git a/django/contrib/redirects/middleware.py b/django/contrib/redirects/middleware.py
index c8f09ada8e..c005eba9ac 100644
--- a/django/contrib/redirects/middleware.py
+++ b/django/contrib/redirects/middleware.py
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ class RedirectFallbackMiddleware:
         if r is not None:
             if r == '':
                 return httpwrappers.HttpResponseGone()
-            return httpwrappers.HttpResponseRedirect(r.new_path)
+            return httpwrappers.HttpResponsePermanentRedirect(r.new_path)
 
         # No redirect was found. Return the response.
         return response
diff --git a/django/middleware/common.py b/django/middleware/common.py
index 7ab2841118..aa8f4ec071 100644
--- a/django/middleware/common.py
+++ b/django/middleware/common.py
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ class CommonMiddleware:
                 newurl = new_url[1]
             if request.GET:
                 newurl += '?' + request.GET.urlencode()
-            return httpwrappers.HttpResponseRedirect(newurl)
+            return httpwrappers.HttpResponsePermanentRedirect(newurl)
 
         return None
 
diff --git a/django/utils/httpwrappers.py b/django/utils/httpwrappers.py
index 6a64592eaa..6fda8ad570 100644
--- a/django/utils/httpwrappers.py
+++ b/django/utils/httpwrappers.py
@@ -212,6 +212,12 @@ class HttpResponseRedirect(HttpResponse):
         self['Location'] = redirect_to
         self.status_code = 302
 
+class HttpResponsePermanentRedirect(HttpResponse):
+    def __init__(self, redirect_to):
+        HttpResponse.__init__(self)
+        self['Location'] = redirect_to
+        self.status_code = 301
+
 class HttpResponseNotModified(HttpResponse):
     def __init__(self):
         HttpResponse.__init__(self)
diff --git a/django/views/generic/simple.py b/django/views/generic/simple.py
index 8a054e1ce7..086ed42805 100644
--- a/django/views/generic/simple.py
+++ b/django/views/generic/simple.py
@@ -1,28 +1,28 @@
 from django.core.extensions import DjangoContext, render_to_response
-from django.utils.httpwrappers import HttpResponse, HttpResponseRedirect, HttpResponseGone
+from django.utils.httpwrappers import HttpResponse, HttpResponsePermanentRedirect, HttpResponseGone
 
 def direct_to_template(request, template, **kwargs):
     """
-    Render a given template with any extra URL parameters in the context as 
+    Render a given template with any extra URL parameters in the context as
     ``{{ params }}``.
     """
     return render_to_response(template, {'params' : kwargs}, context_instance=DjangoContext(request))
-    
+
 def redirect_to(request, url, **kwargs):
     """
-    Redirect to a given URL.  
-    
-    The given url may contain dict-style string formatting which will be
+    Redirect to a given URL.
+
+    The given url may contain dict-style string formatting, which will be
     interpolated against the params in the URL.  For example, to redirect from
-    ``/foo/<id>/`` to ``/bar/<id>/``, you could use the following urlpattern::
+    ``/foo/<id>/`` to ``/bar/<id>/``, you could use the following URLconf::
 
         urlpatterns = patterns('',
             ('^foo/(?p<id>\d+)/$', 'django.views.generic.simple.redirect_to', {'url' : '/bar/%(id)s/'}),
         )
-        
+
     If the given url is ``None``, a HttpResponseGone (410) will be issued.
     """
     if url is not None:
-        return HttpResponseRedirect(url % kwargs)
+        return HttpResponsePermanentRedirect(url % kwargs)
     else:
-        return HttpResponseGone()
\ No newline at end of file
+        return HttpResponseGone()
diff --git a/docs/request_response.txt b/docs/request_response.txt
index dea1cdb975..76882953bb 100644
--- a/docs/request_response.txt
+++ b/docs/request_response.txt
@@ -357,7 +357,14 @@ types of HTTP responses. Like ``HttpResponse``, these subclasses live in
 ``HttpResponseRedirect``
     The constructor takes a single argument -- the path to redirect to. This
     can be a fully qualified URL (e.g. ``"http://www.yahoo.com/search/"``) or an
-    absolute URL with no domain (e.g. ``"/search/"``).
+    absolute URL with no domain (e.g. ``"/search/"``). Note that this returns
+    an HTTP status code 302.
+
+``HttpResponsePermanentRedirect``
+    **New in Django development version.***
+
+    Like ``HttpResponseRedirect``, but it returns a permanent redirect (HTTP
+    status code 301) instead of a "found" redirect (status code 302).
 
 ``HttpResponseNotModified``
     The constructor doesn't take any arguments. Use this to designate that a