Salme Anette Pekkala-Dutt (née Murrik; 30 August 1888 – 30 August 1964), known by the pen name Sancho, was an Estonian-British communist politician, essayist, writer and translator.
Salme Anette Murrik was born 29 August 1888 in Taagepera, Governorate of Livonia (present-day, Estonia) to Ernst Murrik and Katarina Kokamägi. One of five siblings, Pekkala-Dutt was the younger sister of the writer Hella Wuolijoki.
Pekkala-Dutt grew up and attended primary school in Valga. Pekkala-Dutt later moved to Tartu and attended Pushkin's Girls Gymnasium. In 1905, Pekkala-Dutt was forced to leave the Pushkin's Girls Gymnasium due to her participation in underground activities linked to the 1905 Russian Revolution.
Pekkala-Dutt moved to Moscow where she studied at a Gymnasium before attending university.
Due to her revolutionary activities, Pekkala-Dutt went into voluntarily exile in Siberia for two years. Pekkala-Dutt later relocated in Finland in 1908.
In 1920, settled in Britain as a Comintern representative. During the early years of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Pekkala-Dutt acted as the link to Moscow for her future husband R. Palme Dutt. Salme Murrik had been directed to Britain on Lenin's orders to participate in forming the Communist Party there. She remained an ardent admirer of Stalin even after Khruschchev's 1956 secret speech critical of Stalin's cult of personality.
Pekkala-Dutt's treatment of the Chartist movement, When England Arose, was published in 1939. A collection of poems, entitled Lucifer and Other Poems, was published in London in 1966.
Through her sister Hella Pekkala-Dutt was the great-aunt of the Finnish politician Erkki Tuomioja.
In 1913, Pekkala-Dutt married the Finnish politician Eino Pekkala. Pekkala-Dutt and Pekkala later divorced in January 1924.
On 5 August 1924, Pekkala-Dutt married R. Palme Dutt, a British journalist, theoretician and member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, in Stockholm.
On 30 August 1964 Pekkala-Dutt died in London, aged 76.
John Callaghan “Rajani Palme Dutt, British communism, and the Communist Party of India″ - Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Volume 6, Issue 1 March 1990, pages 49 – 70
Andrew Thorpe The British Communist Party and Moscow 1920-43, Manchester University Press, 308 s., Midsomer Norton 2000
Erkki Tuomioja Häivähdys punaista Helsinki:Tammi, 2006 (Swedish translation: Ett stänk av rött: två systrar i revolutionens tjänst Stockholm, 2008, Estonian: Õrnroosa: Hella Wuolijoe ja Salme Dutti elu revolutsiooni teenistuses, Tallinn, 2006, the English manuscript is entitled A delicate shade of pink)