diff --git a/django/views/generic/list_detail.py b/django/views/generic/list_detail.py
index 5bd5b87d33..bd0f17c56a 100644
--- a/django/views/generic/list_detail.py
+++ b/django/views/generic/list_detail.py
@@ -4,8 +4,8 @@ from django.core.xheaders import populate_xheaders
 from django.core.paginator import ObjectPaginator, InvalidPage
 from django.core.exceptions import ObjectDoesNotExist
 
-def object_list(request, queryset, paginate_by=None, allow_empty=False,
-        template_name=None, template_loader=loader,
+def object_list(request, queryset, paginate_by=None, page=None,
+        allow_empty=False, template_name=None, template_loader=loader,
         extra_context=None, context_processors=None, template_object_name='object',
         mimetype=None):
     """
@@ -38,7 +38,8 @@ def object_list(request, queryset, paginate_by=None, allow_empty=False,
     queryset = queryset._clone()
     if paginate_by:
         paginator = ObjectPaginator(queryset, paginate_by)
-        page = request.GET.get('page', 1)
+        if not page:
+            page = request.GET.get('page', 1)
         try:
             page = int(page)
             object_list = paginator.get_page(page - 1)
diff --git a/docs/generic_views.txt b/docs/generic_views.txt
index 317828a2b2..d14fe12418 100644
--- a/docs/generic_views.txt
+++ b/docs/generic_views.txt
@@ -641,8 +641,10 @@ A page representing a list of objects.
 
     * ``paginate_by``: An integer specifying how many objects should be
       displayed per page. If this is given, the view will paginate objects with
-      ``paginate_by`` objects per page. The view will expect a ``page`` query
-      string (GET) parameter containing a zero-indexed page number.
+      ``paginate_by`` objects per page. The view will expect either a ``page``
+      query string parameter (via ``GET``) containing a zero-indexed page
+      number, or a ``page`` variable specified in the URLconf. See
+      "Notes on pagination" below.
 
     * ``template_name``: The full name of a template to use in rendering the
       page. This lets you override the default template name (see below).
@@ -711,6 +713,25 @@ If the results are paginated, the context will contain these extra variables:
     * ``hits``: The total number of objects across *all* pages, not just this
       page.
 
+Notes on pagination
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+If ``paginate_by`` is specified, Django will paginate the results. You can
+specify the page number in the URL in one of two ways:
+
+    * Use the ``page`` parameter in the URLconf. For example, this is what
+      your URLconf might look like::
+
+        (r'^objects/page(?P<page>[0-9]+)/$', 'object_list', dict(info_dict))
+
+    * Pass the page number via the ``page`` query-string parameter. For
+      example, a URL would look like this:
+
+        /objects/?page=3
+
+In both cases, ``page`` is 1-based, not 0-based, so the first page would be
+represented as page ``1``.
+
 ``django.views.generic.list_detail.object_detail``
 --------------------------------------------------