diff --git a/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/chromium/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/chromium/default.nix
index 751aaf8ee67..4c3a02dcecc 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/chromium/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/chromium/default.nix
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 { stdenv, getConfig, fetchurl, makeWrapper, which
 
+# this is needed in order to build the versions older than 21.x
+, subversion
+
 # default dependencies
 , bzip2, flac, speex
 , libevent, expat, libjpeg
@@ -70,12 +73,14 @@ let
     use_system_v8 = false;
   };
 
+  needsSubversion = stdenv.lib.versionOlder sourceInfo.version "21.0.0.0";
+
   defaultDependencies = [
     bzip2 flac speex
     libevent expat libjpeg
     libpng libxml2 libxslt
     xdg_utils yasm zlib
-  ];
+  ] ++ stdenv.lib.optional needsSubversion subversion;
 
 in stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "${packageName}-${version}";