The Slovak National Uprising as a national treasure? Interpretation and legacy of the SNU in Slovak political discourse and national mythology Vladimír Naxera and Petr Krčál 1 Abstract This article focuses on the interpretation of the Slovak National Uprising (SNU) and its celebration and glorification. Specifically, we attempt to characterise what role the SNU plays in relation to the (re)construction and (re)interpretation of Slovak national history. In terms of the uprising, we identify three differing discourses – the first (and dominant) discourse adores the uprising, the second takes a critical stance against it, and the third defends the legacy of the uprising and the dominant discourse against the criticism of the second discourse. Analysed data was collected via semi-participant observation of uprising celebrations and media reports linked to the issue of political grappling over the SNU. The data were interpreted using the CAQDA approach. Key words CAQDA, Slovak National Uprising, National MythologyĽ Banská Bystrica, Robert Fico, Marian Kotleba Introduction “The Slovak National Uprising is a treasure [2] that citizens of every nation and country would like to take pride in” (Robert Fico during SNU celebrations in Banská BystricaĽ 2015). 1 PhDr. Vladimír NaxeraĽ Ph.D. and PhDr. Petr KrčálĽ Ph.D. are junior lecturers at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. Their contemporary research interests include mainly political circumstances of public events (both on the theoretical level and in the context of the Czech Republic and Slovakia) and their relevance for political order and dominant political discourse. They also deal with some other themes belonging to applied political theory (corruption, security, bureaucracy, etc.). Contact: vnaxera@kap.zcu.cz, petrkrcal@gmail.com This paper was supported by project SGS-2016-030, provided by the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. We would like to thank both editors of this article for their valuable comments and suggestions. 2 Fico literally used the word perla (Eng. pearl)