... I can't recall exactly which battle it was, it may have been the battle of Kiev, but I distinctly remember being impressed with how the Russians were able to deliver such heavy equipment, rapidly into battle via light weight aircraft back in the 1940's!
Is this true - did this actually happen or is my memory playing tricks on me?
The Russians were actually behind the curve in moving tanks during WW2. Most militaries had moved to gliders pulled behind heavy bombers. But the Russians were still using bombers with light tanks strapped underneath them. The most common was the T27 which was too small to be properly called a tank only weighing 2.7 tonnes. The T26 which was the main light tank would have been too heavy to be carried by any soviet Bomber At least safely. The TB-3 may have been able to lift it but it would have been sketchy at best.
In 1942 the Antonov A4 was built using a T50 stripped of armament armor and fuel. It was a glider made of wings designed to be strapped to the light tank. Unfortunately the A4 was unstable in the air (not to mention the problem of what to do with a tank with no armament armor or fuel in battle)