diff -r 37bacf3fa1f5 Doc/c-api/long.rst
--- a/Doc/c-api/long.rst	Thu Feb 11 10:26:27 2016 -0500
+++ b/Doc/c-api/long.rst	Thu Feb 11 14:12:46 2016 -0500
@@ -260,3 +260,9 @@
    If *pylong* cannot be converted, an :exc:`OverflowError` will be raised.  This
    is only assured to produce a usable :c:type:`void` pointer for values created
    with :c:func:`PyLong_FromVoidPtr`.
+
+
+.. c:function:: int PyLong_ClearFreeList()
+
+   Clear the long free list. Return the number of items that could not
+   be freed.
diff -r 37bacf3fa1f5 Include/longobject.h
--- a/Include/longobject.h	Thu Feb 11 10:26:27 2016 -0500
+++ b/Include/longobject.h	Thu Feb 11 14:12:46 2016 -0500
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
 PyAPI_FUNC(unsigned long) PyLong_AsUnsignedLongMask(PyObject *);
 #ifndef Py_LIMITED_API
 PyAPI_FUNC(int) _PyLong_AsInt(PyObject *);
+PyAPI_FUNC(int) PyLong_ClearFreeList(void);
 #endif
 PyAPI_FUNC(PyObject *) PyLong_GetInfo(void);
 
diff -r 37bacf3fa1f5 Modules/gcmodule.c
--- a/Modules/gcmodule.c	Thu Feb 11 10:26:27 2016 -0500
+++ b/Modules/gcmodule.c	Thu Feb 11 14:12:46 2016 -0500
@@ -889,6 +889,7 @@
     (void)PyTuple_ClearFreeList();
     (void)PyUnicode_ClearFreeList();
     (void)PyFloat_ClearFreeList();
+    (void)PyLong_ClearFreeList();
     (void)PyList_ClearFreeList();
     (void)PyDict_ClearFreeList();
     (void)PySet_ClearFreeList();
diff -r 37bacf3fa1f5 Objects/longobject.c
--- a/Objects/longobject.c	Thu Feb 11 10:26:27 2016 -0500
+++ b/Objects/longobject.c	Thu Feb 11 14:12:46 2016 -0500
@@ -9,6 +9,13 @@
 #include <ctype.h>
 #include <stddef.h>
 
+
+/* Free-list for single-digit longs. */
+#define PyLong_MAXFREELIST 200
+static PyLongObject *free_list[PyLong_MAXFREELIST];
+static int numfree = 0;
+
+
 #ifndef NSMALLPOSINTS
 #define NSMALLPOSINTS           257
 #endif
@@ -183,6 +190,17 @@
 _PyLong_New(Py_ssize_t size)
 {
     PyLongObject *result;
+
+    if (size == 1 && numfree) {
+        result = free_list[--numfree];
+        assert(result != NULL);
+        assert(PyLong_CheckExact(result));
+        assert(Py_ABS(Py_SIZE(result)) == 1);
+        Py_SIZE(result) = 1;
+        _Py_NewReference((PyObject *)result);
+        return result;
+    }
+
     /* Number of bytes needed is: offsetof(PyLongObject, ob_digit) +
        sizeof(digit)*size.  Previous incarnations of this code used
        sizeof(PyVarObject) instead of the offsetof, but this risks being
@@ -2790,7 +2808,17 @@
 static void
 long_dealloc(PyObject *v)
 {
-    Py_TYPE(v)->tp_free(v);
+    if (PyLong_CheckExact(v) && Py_ABS(Py_SIZE(v)) == 1) {
+        if (numfree < PyLong_MAXFREELIST) {
+            free_list[numfree++] = (PyLongObject*)v;
+        }
+        else {
+            PyObject_FREE(v);
+        }
+    }
+    else {
+        Py_TYPE(v)->tp_free(v);
+    }
 }
 
 static int
@@ -5467,6 +5495,19 @@
     return 1;
 }
 
+int
+PyLong_ClearFreeList(void)
+{
+    PyObject *o;
+    int ret = numfree;
+    while (numfree) {
+        o = (PyObject*) free_list[--numfree];
+        assert(PyLong_CheckExact(o));
+        PyObject_FREE(o);
+    }
+    return ret;
+}
+
 void
 PyLong_Fini(void)
 {
@@ -5481,4 +5522,6 @@
         _Py_ForgetReference((PyObject*)v);
     }
 #endif
+
+    (void)PyLong_ClearFreeList();
 }