diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index 974e549486017..c5c804fbf3672 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ OpenSSL Releases
 OpenSSL 3.2
 -----------
 
-### Changes between 3.1 and 3.2 [xx XXX xxxx]
+### Changes between 3.1 and 3.2 alpha 1 [7 Sep 2023]
 
  * Changed the default salt length used by PBES2 KDF's (PBKDF2 and scrypt)
    from 8 bytes to 16 bytes.
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 8a1ca6b97305c..2471a69868aa7 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ OpenSSL Releases
 OpenSSL 3.2
 -----------
 
-### Major changes between OpenSSL 3.1 and OpenSSL 3.2 [under development]
+### Major changes between OpenSSL 3.1 and OpenSSL 3.2 alpha 1 [in pre-release]
 
   * Added client side support for QUIC.
   * Added multiple tutorials on the OpenSSL library and in particular
diff --git a/VERSION.dat b/VERSION.dat
index 848915b9a2861..56dc55ab5d538 100644
--- a/VERSION.dat
+++ b/VERSION.dat
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 MAJOR=3
 MINOR=2
 PATCH=0
-PRE_RELEASE_TAG=dev
+PRE_RELEASE_TAG=alpha1
 BUILD_METADATA=
-RELEASE_DATE=""
+RELEASE_DATE="7 Sep 2023"
 SHLIB_VERSION=3