diff --git a/doc/source/pre/whatsnew/1.2.rst b/doc/source/pre/whatsnew/1.2.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..38751b83641b69ed0ad44aba58e0045a3d5ffdd9
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+++ b/doc/source/pre/whatsnew/1.2.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+What's new in Kwant 1.2
+=======================
+
+This article explains the user-visible changes in Kwant 1.2, released on 9
+December 2015.  Please consult the `full list of changes in Kwant
+<https://gitlab.kwant-project.org/kwant/kwant/compare/v1.2.2...stable>`_ for
+all the changes up to the most recent bugfix release.
+
+Kwant 1.2 is identical to Kwant 1.1 except that it has been updated to run on
+Python 3.4 and above.  Bugfix releases for the 1.1 and 1.2 series will mirror
+each other, i.e. 1.1.3 and 1.2.3 will fix the same bugs.
+
+Starting with Kwant 1.2, all Kwant development will target Python 3.  We plan,
+however, to maintain Python 2 support with the 1.1 series for several years.
+
+
+How to upgrade Kwant scripts to Python 3
+----------------------------------------
+Even though the interface and functionality of Kwant remain unchanged between
+versions 1.1 and 1.2, scripts using Kwant need to be updated to Python 3.
+This can be done by running the `automatic conversion tool
+<https://docs.python.org/3/library/2to3.html>`_ on the command line::
+
+    2to3 -w example.py
+
+(The above command will rename the original file to ``example.py.bak``.)  The
+necessary changes are typically only superficial, as described in `What’s New
+In Python 3.0 <https://docs.python.org/3/whatsnew/3.0.html>`_.
diff --git a/doc/source/pre/whatsnew/index.rst b/doc/source/pre/whatsnew/index.rst
index b97a4f12591efd87862cbff78ae953d5a00721e2..141ac251f9f707705d45e01fd4f54de03633a7af 100644
--- a/doc/source/pre/whatsnew/index.rst
+++ b/doc/source/pre/whatsnew/index.rst
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ What's new in Kwant
 ===================
 
 .. toctree::
+    1.2
     1.1
     1.0
     0.2