 For Adolf Hitler, the circumstance was no dilemma, because the "Drang nach Osten" ("Drive towards the East") policy secretly remained in force, culminating on 18 December 1940 with "Directive No.21, Operation Barbarossa", approved on 3 February 1941, and scheduled for mid-May 1941.When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, in Operation Barbarossa, the Red Army's ground forces had 303 divisions and 22 separate brigades (5.5 million soldiers) including 166 divisions and brigades (2.6 million) garrisoned in the western military districts.