Showing native 8-bit strings in Python interpreter

[braver]

I'm storing 8-bit characters from the 128-256 range in Python
strings.  They are Windows CP1251 Russian characters.  When looking at
those strings in the Python interpreter, they come up as codes inside
the string.  How can I teach Python to show those 8-bit characters in
the native encoding of the terminal -- in the current locale -- where
the interpreter was started?

Cheers,
Alexy