The monastery was founded around 1670 by Elder Joseph on the southern outskirts of Tambov. In 1679, the monastic brotherhood received mills on the Studenets and Tsna rivers in the area of the village of Donskoy as a gift. They owned the lands of the Trinity Dubrava, Trinity Watch, the hamlet of Three Hollows, the bank of the Karyana River, and lands near the village of Tatanovo.

Frequent fires in Tambov repeatedly changed the architectural appearance of the monastery, with significant reconstruction occurring in the mid-18th century.

When the Tambov diocese was restored in 1758, Bishop Pachomius Simansky made the Kazan monastery his residence. A new wooden archbishop's house, spiritual consistory, bathhouse, stable yard, and economic services were built next to the brotherhood building and the church.

Stone construction of buildings and churches of the Kazan Men's Monastery began in the last decades of the 18th century.

Bishop Theophil Raev, who managed the diocese in 1788 and 1811, made a significant contribution to the construction and improvement of the monastery. At his initiative, two stone churches, the Kazan and John the Baptist churches, were erected, which have survived to this day. The churches were built by former Sarov novice Nafania. Archpriest S. A. Bereznegovsky and engineer-architect A. S. Chetverikov played an important role in the construction. The buildings of the monastery are executed in the style of classicism, popular at that time in Russian architecture.

The Kazan Monastery was closed on October 19, 1918, due to its participation in anti-Soviet protests in Tambov. During the Civil War, after the Antonov peasant uprising, a camp was organized in the monastery where interrogations and executions were conducted. At this time, the bell tower was destroyed, and the materials were used to build a club in the suburb, now the city of Kotovsk. The bells were transferred to Glavnavka as monuments of history and culture.

In the 1920s, the Tambov provincial Cheka was located here. Later, the necropolis was destroyed, and the bell tower was ruined. The Kazan church housed a branch of the State Archive of the Tambov Region.

On June 28, 1927, the presidium of the Tambov City Executive Committee decided to confiscate the bells from the former Kazan Monastery.

On August 30, 1960, by the decree of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR No. 1327, the monastery was placed under state protection as a monument of republican significance.

The revival of the monastery began on December 22, 1992.

In August 2014, during a visit to Tambov, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia consecrated a monument to Bishop Pitirim, the founder of the Ascension Monastery, and the bell tower of the Kazan Monastery.