diff --git a/tensorflow/python/ops/kv_variable_ops.py b/tensorflow/python/ops/kv_variable_ops.py
index 1ef9550ef6d..840aadf2541 100644
--- a/tensorflow/python/ops/kv_variable_ops.py
+++ b/tensorflow/python/ops/kv_variable_ops.py
@@ -530,11 +530,16 @@ def _init_from_proto(self, variable_def, import_scope=None):
           cache_op = op
     elif self._initializer_op.type == "InitializeKvVariableOp":
       init_op = self._initializer_op
-
-    self._init_op_for_restore = g.as_graph_element(
+    if variable_def.initialize_op_for_restore:
+      self._init_op_for_restore = g.as_graph_element(
         ops.prepend_name_scope(
             variable_def.initialize_op_for_restore,
             import_scope=import_scope))
+    else: #Backward compatibility with 2306
+      self._init_op_for_restore = g.as_graph_element(
+        ops.prepend_name_scope(
+            variable_def.initializer_name,
+            import_scope=import_scope))
     self._trainable = getattr(variable_def, "trainable", True)
     if variable_def.snapshot_name:
       self._cached_value = g.as_graph_element(