This article discusses the topiè of national identification. The author's aim is to define the appropriate conceptual framework for describing nationality, while taking into account the pluralistic character of the nation and the related contextual and multi-levelled nature of national identification. In the autho s view, the concept of 'identification' more accurately applies to individual nationality than the category of identity does, owing to the latters undesirable subjectivism, methodological individualism, and its occasional references to an over-intellectualised concept of the individual. Scientists who use the second of these two terms tend, moreover, to conflate descríptions of individual and collective phenomena. In an effort to substantiate and elaboráte his arguments the author draws on the Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek and presents an analysis of the national identification of the novela multi-national protagonists. He demonstrates that national identification is multi-levelled and variable, depending on particular situations and institutional frameworks. The authors description shows that the best method of analysing individual nationality may be by examining the individual's set of sociál roles and institutions rather than describing individual identifications.