When Stalin visited his mother in October 1935, he asked her: 

"Why did you beat me so hard?" 

"That's why you turned out so well", Keke answered. 

In return, his mother asked him: "Joseph - who exactly are you now?" 

"Do you remember the tsar? Well, I'm like a tsar", replied Stalin. 

"You'd have done better to have become a priest" was his mother's retort.