I'm from Lithuania and yes, we had our share of "fun" with the communism.
As for the "scared of symbols" part - I'm more uncomfortable with ignorance about those symbols, the stupid usage they get and being ill-informed about what they mean to a whole lot of people, rather the whole history thing
E.g. we have a
http://www.sovietbunker.com/en/ in LT where one can experience authentic soviet approach to "questioning by KGB" (worth a try if you ever step a foot in LT) and that IMO is a proper usage of those symbols. Having them decorating your nick and being an "intro" to ones youtube videos? The guy goes right next to stupid chocolate cookies.