diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 1be3057c3e..1f0df1277e 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -320,6 +320,9 @@ def run(self):
 #
 CYTHON_STR = 'Cython==0.29.28'
 
+# Allow overriding the Cython version requirement
+CYTHON_STR = os.environ.get('GENSIM_CYTHON_REQUIRES', CYTHON_STR)
+
 install_requires = [
     NUMPY_STR,
     'scipy >= 0.18.1',