How to decode unicode raw literals to readable string?

Question

If I assign unicode raw literals to a variable, I can read its value:

>>> s =  u'\u0421\u043e\u043e\u0431\u0449\u0435\u043d\u0438\u0435 \u043e\u0442\u043f\u0440\u0430\u0432\u043b\u0435\u043d\u043e'
>>> s
u'\u0421\u043e\u043e\u0431\u0449\u0435\u043d\u0438\u0435 \u043e\u0442\u043f\u0440\u0430\u0432\u043b\u0435\u043d\u043e'
>>> print s
Сообщение отправлено

But when I have already assigned value to a plain, not unicode string, I can not:

>>> s =  '\u0421\u043e\u043e\u0431\u0449\u0435\u043d\u0438\u0435 \u043e\u0442\u043f\u0440\u0430\u0432\u043b\u0435\u043d\u043e'
>>> s
'\\u0421\\u043e\\u043e\\u0431\\u0449\\u0435\\u043d\\u0438\\u0435 \\u043e\\u0442\\u043f\\u0440\\u0430\\u0432\\u043b\\u0435\\u043d\\u043e'
>>> print s
\u0421\u043e\u043e\u0431\u0449\u0435\u043d\u0438\u0435 \u043e\u0442\u043f\u0440\u0430\u0432\u043b\u0435\u043d\u043e

How can I decode and read it?

Answer 1

Use the unicode_escape codec:

s.decode('unicode_escape')