Python 2.0 cyclic garbage collection -- newbie's question

[June Kim]

I was happy to see Python 2.0 final release and installed
it right after its release. Reading "What's New in Python 2.0" 
by A.M. Kuchling and Moshe Zadka, it seemed like the
cyclic garbage collection has been added, but is not ON
by default -- for the performance matter or whatever.

However, when I followed these lines, it seemed the other way
around:

>>> import gc
>>> gc.is_enabled()
1

,which means the optional cyclic garbage collection is already
on.

Is the cyclic garbage collection ON before the gc module is imported?