diff --git a/modules/core/include/opencv2/core/core.hpp b/modules/core/include/opencv2/core/core.hpp
index 488e3e984040dd5d012ba3c4bbfbf96729496b0e..591d50ade6a038c26f0ec694f6ff425dd091ccb3 100644
--- a/modules/core/include/opencv2/core/core.hpp
+++ b/modules/core/include/opencv2/core/core.hpp
@@ -2593,6 +2593,9 @@ CV_EXPORTS_W double kmeans( InputArray data, int K, CV_OUT InputOutputArray best
 //! returns the thread-local Random number generator
 CV_EXPORTS RNG& theRNG();
 
+//! sets state of the thread-local Random number generator
+CV_EXPORTS_W void setRNGSeed(int seed);
+
 //! returns the next unifomly-distributed random number of the specified type
 template<typename _Tp> static inline _Tp randu() { return (_Tp)theRNG(); }
 
diff --git a/modules/core/src/rand.cpp b/modules/core/src/rand.cpp
index 54bb753a150b0ea4fa5bb652686622d066576de9..73dff184b52828c127e698cb749167ea0750e67b 100644
--- a/modules/core/src/rand.cpp
+++ b/modules/core/src/rand.cpp
@@ -806,6 +806,11 @@ RNG& theRNG()
 
 }
 
+void cv::setRNGSeed(int seed)
+{
+    theRNG() = RNG(static_cast<uint64>(seed));
+}
+
 void cv::randu(InputOutputArray dst, InputArray low, InputArray high)
 {
     theRNG().fill(dst, RNG::UNIFORM, low, high);
diff --git a/modules/python/test/tests_common.py b/modules/python/test/tests_common.py
index 3a636b255c8e01f3c43dd3001c27df533003f7c4..67b5bea2f7c76ef29375a3947cffe39452f411d2 100644
--- a/modules/python/test/tests_common.py
+++ b/modules/python/test/tests_common.py
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ class NewOpenCVTests(unittest.TestCase):
         return self.image_cache[filename]
 
     def setUp(self):
+        cv2.setRNGSeed(10)
         self.image_cache = {}
 
     def hashimg(self, im):